Fatal Mattole River Crash Leaves Two Dead, One Injured and Responders Shaken

Multiple agencies responded to a tragic double fatality collision off Mattole Road in the early morning hours of Monday, July 6. [All photos provided by Petrolia VFD]

According to the CHP traffic log, the first 911 call came in at about 2:20 a.m. reporting a vehicle collision, though the caller was unable to provide an exact location. By 2:42 a.m., a second caller told CHP a vehicle had gone off the bridge near Mattole Camp with multiple people inside. That caller said the vehicle was about 50 feet from the roadway and could not be seen from the road.

Petrolia Volunteer Fire Department, Cal Fire, Southern Humboldt Technical Rescue, Honeydew Fire, CHP and City Ambulance all responded. In a statement from Petrolia VFD, crews arrived to find a vehicle that had gone off the road and was submerged in the river, with three people located along the riverbank.

Petrolia VFD Lieutenant Christian Calinsky said in an interview with Redheaded Blackbelt that crews were originally sent out for a report of a crash, and someone calling for help, but did not know how serious the scene would be until they got there.

First responders lined the narrow road on either side of the Mattole Road Bridge.

“A couple firefighters showed up and changed the call because they saw what was going on down in the river, that there was a car down in the river underwater, and there were three patients in the water,” he said.

Upon arrival, crews immediately began CPR on two of the three occupants while another team stabilized the third. CPR continued for about 50 minutes on the two patients who did not survive. Once City Ambulance arrived, the surviving patient was loaded onto a backboard and carried up the steep embankment with help from Southern Humboldt Technical Rescue, then taken by ambulance for treatment. Calinsky described the patient’s condition as severe.

The exact cause of the collision remains under investigation. CHP’s Garberville Area office is leading the investigation. Officers remained at the scene Monday, and few additional details had been released.

A hazmat response has been initiated due to leaking fluids from the submerged vehicle.

The crash site also drew a hazardous materials response after the submerged vehicle began slowly leaking petroleum into the Mattole River. According to an initial California Office of Emergency Services spill report, responders estimated about one gallon of petroleum had entered the river. Because of the vehicle’s location underwater, the spill had not yet been stopped or contained at the time the report was filed. Officials said it was unknown whether drinking water would be affected or whether the pollution could eventually reach the Pacific Ocean downstream.

Calinsky said staff at A.W. Way Campground just downriver from the scene would be closing river access to the public due to the petroleum leaking from the submerged vehicle.

The spill report lists Humboldt County Environmental Health as the lead agency for the environmental response. State and federal agencies notified included the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Regional Water Quality Control Board, Department of Toxic Substances Control, California Department of Public Health, the U.S. Coast Guard and others.

The toll on responders

Calinsky said the call took a heavy emotional toll, one that can be exacerbated when small, rural departments respond to calls that often involve their neighbors and friends.

Southern Humboldt Technical Rescue provided aid in the steep terrain.

“I think what’s not talked about a lot is that …firefighters and first responders respond to some of the most horrible things that people can imagine, and the most horrible days of people’s lives, and we go there, and we perform a job, and we do what we’re trained to do, and a lot of folks don’t think about what we walk away with,” he said.

Calinsky said the culture around that toll has started to shift. In the past, he said, first responders were expected to keep quiet about what they saw and carry it themselves. He said that approach did not work, and that critical incident stress debriefings, where responders can talk through a scene with trained counselors, are becoming more common and more necessary.

“I think people need to start utilizing it more,” he said.

Cal Fire, which serves as Petrolia VFD’s mutual aid partner at the Mattole station, offered to hold a critical incident debriefing open to everyone who worked the scene, Calinsky said. Volunteer departments like Petrolia’s do not have the same access to mental health care that paid departments do, he said, and rely largely on outside programs and mutual aid partners stepping in after difficult calls.

Names of those involved have not been released. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.