Caspar

Updated story- Allegedly drunk driver blamed for tow truck head on that closed Caspar Creek Bridge for three hours + on March 9

Photo of Frank Hartzell Frank Hartzell Send an email 2 minutes ago
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This was two hours after the crash happened. We heard a drunk driver caused it right away but coudnt verify this till March 22

We have gotten needed details on a crash that caused one of the biggest traffic tieups of the year on the Mendocino Coast. We wrote a story that day and LInda and i took photos under the bridge and Brutus and I hiked up to the north end of the bridge. We got enough of the story at the scene to report what happened pretty much exactly and could have gotten the whole story by going onto the bridge and talking to people on the scene but that seemed like a foolish idea. At the scene, we did get the name of the driver who caused the crash, Eric England. We checked the booking logs and court index for any filing related to DUI every day or that name, but none appeared and still none has appeared as of Monday. We had to have official word to do the story with names and with the fact that the person who caused the crash is suspected of being under the influence. This happens in an astonishgly high number of local crashes and we intend to continue following up on this issue.

Our story from March 9, attached below, provides an accurate picture of what happened, minus the names.

Officer Marin from the CHP helped us track down the police report and gave us the following:

Here is the information from the CHP

A three-vehicle, minor-injury traffic collision occurred on (03/09/2026 @ 2:54PM) the State Route-1 north of County Road 409. The investigation determined that Eric England (from Fort Bragg) was driving his vehicle (2014 Ford Focus) northbound at a high rate of speed and tried to pass but collided with a vehicle (2015 Toyota Tacoma) driven by Thomas Keevanlynch (from Philo).  England’s vehicle then veered left across double yellow lines and collided with a metal guardrail and then a tow truck traveling southbound (2024 International Tow truck) driven by Darrel Linder from Laytonville.     During the on-scene investigation, officers observed signs that Enlgand was under the influence.  Following further investigation, England was arrested for 23152(a) VC (Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol) and 23152(b) VC (Driving With a Blood Alcohol Content of 0.08% or Greater).

Here is the story we did the day of the crash.

Car passing traffic hits pickup, crashes into front of big towtruck, becoming stuck for hours as Caspar Creek Bridge is closed off and on for much of Monday afternoon

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Photo of Frank Hartzell Frank Hartzell Send an email 2 minutes ago
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Photo of Frank Hartzell

Frank Hartzell

Frank Hartzell has spent his lifetime as a curious anthropologist in a reporter's fedora. His first news job was chasing news on the streets of Houston with high school buddy and photographer James Mason, back in 1986. Then Frank graduated from Humboldt State and went to Great Gridley as a reporter, where he bonded with 1000 people and told about 3000 of their stories. In Marysville at the Appeal Democrat, the sheltered Frank got to see both the chilling depths and amazing heights of humanity. From there, he worked at the Sacramento Bee covering Yuba-Sutter and then owned the Business Journal in Yuba City, which sold 5000 subscriptions to a free newspaper. Frank then got a prestigious Kiplinger Investigative Reporting fellowship and was city editor of the Newark Ohio, Advocate and then came back to California for 4 years as managing editor of the Napa Valley Register before working as a Dominican University professor, then coming to Fort Bragg to be with his aging mom, Betty Lou Hartzell, and working for the Fort Bragg Advocate News. Frank paid the bills during that decade + with a successful book business. He has worked for over 50 publications as a freelance writer, including the Mendocino Voice and Anderson Valley Advertiser, along with construction and engineering publications. He has had the thrill of learning every day while writing. Frank is now living his dream running MendocinoCoast.News with wife, Linda Hartzell, and web developer, Marty McGee, reporting from Fort Bragg, California.

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