Juvenile injured, driver arrested after truck crashes into tree in SLO County

A juvenile was sent to the hospital Sunday after a late-night vehicle crash in Cambria.

According to the California Highway Patrol, a juvenile with major injuries was taken by ambulance to Adventist Health Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center after a truck crashed into a tree on Cambria’s oceanfront Moonstone Beach Drive near Stafford Drive at around 10:30 p.m.

The driver, 19-year-old Cambria resident Diego Gomezquintero, was arrested and booked into San Luis Obispo County Jail, on suspicion of charges of driving under the influence and causing an accident that resulted in injuries, according to the Sheriff’s Office’s booking log.

Gomezquintero received minor injuries in the crash, according to CHP spokesman Ryan Armstrong.

No additional information about the juvenile was available Monday afternoon. Gomezquintero was not listed as still being in custody on the Sheriff’s Office’s Who’s in Custody website.

Neighbors say they heard crash and saw some of aftermath

Jennifer Smith, who lives about a quarter mile away from where it happened, told The Tribune she “heard a long screech of tires, then a horrible bang that made me sick to my stomach.”

From her home later, she saw the emergency lights on Moonstone, and then the ambulance leaving with its siren on and lights flashing, Smith said.

Likewise, Sudevi Linn Lee posted on Nextdoor that she lives very near where the collision happened, and they heard the crash and then someone calling for help.

“A kind bystander managed to free a window to get them some air, and the fire department cut them out of the truck and had them out quickly,” she said.

“The trunk was mangled … but the people inside made it out alive,” Lee said. “The tree probably saved them from rolling their truck down an embankment.”

Units from Cambria Fire Department and Cal Fire responded to the call, using extrication devices to get the driver and injured passenger out safely, according to Capt. Greg McGill of Cambria Fire.

Kathe Tanner

The Tribune

805-781-7904 (voicemails only)

Kathe Tanner has been writing about the people and places of SLO County’s North Coast since 1981, first as a columnist and then also as a reporter. Her career has included stints as a bakery owner, public relations director, radio host, trail guide and jewelry designer. She has been a resident of Cambria for more than four decades, and if it’s happening in town, Kathe knows about it.