Day: October 27, 2024

Larry Judkins

Glenn County Observer

A child was killed in a vehicle vs. power pole collision early Saturday evening.

The driver of the vehicle, Savannah Marie Dees, 24, of Olivehurst, was arrested on several alcohol-related felonies.

According to the California Highway Patrol traffic incident webpage, at about 6:02 p.m. on October 26, emergency responders were dispatched to a report of a vehicle vs. PG&E power pole accident on County Road M at County Road 27 (later changed to just south of Road 27).

This reporter was at a home on East Yolo Street at the time of the call. First, with overhead lights and sirens activated, two Orland police units zoomed by; then, the fire department’s vehicles began driving by.

A little later, the Artois Fire Department was called for mutual aid.

One child was able to exit the vehicle. Another was unable to get out, however.

When the child finally was extricated from the vehicle, CPR commenced.

The FlightCare helicopter was also called and landed near the scene. It was too late, however.

The child was dead.

The crash caused the fall of a PG&E power pole. At the same time, presumably as a result of the accident, power was lost for several hours in areas of Glenn County, including much of Willows.

According to Glenn County Jail personnel, Dees was booked into the facility on charges alleging causing bodily injury while driving while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, causing bodily injury while driving while under the influence of alcohol, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury which results in the death of a child under the age of eight years by a person having the care or custody of the child, and two counts of infliction of injury on a child (all felonies).

Her bail was set at $690,000.

By Larry Judkins

Glenn County Observer

That’s one relatively short drop for a pumpkin, one giant plummet for pumpkinkind.

There was one, and only one, undisputed winner of the Orland Fire Department’s 2024 Pumpkin Drop Survival Contest on Saturday: the Powell family, who took it as their mission to design and engineer a mock lunar lander.

For their efforts, they won $20.

Time will tell if this will encourage any member of the family to seek a career as a NASA engineer.

And what did the older Powell boy do after the contest ended? Why, what any all-American, red-blooded lad would do, of course!

He smashed his previously unblemished pumpkin on pavement of the parking lot, alongside all the other pumpkin bits and pieces.

And speaking of red-blooded, the big surprise of the event came when what appeared to be an ordinary pumpkin was dropped without a parachute, without a box filled with bubble wrap or padding, without anything.

How unimaginative, right? Firefighter Jerry Kraemer, who had the honor of dropping the pumpkins from the top of the ladder, later admitted that he wondered why anyone would go to the bother of dropping a completely unprotected pumpkin.

“Are they out of their gourd?” others asked themselves.

Nevertheless, Kraemer performed his dropping duty without complaint, and released the pumpkin from his grasp.

As soon as it hit the ground, it became clear why this particular pumpkin was special. When it broke open and splattered in the parking lot, it was immediately realized that it had been injected with a blood-red dye.

This entry won the best of show category.

All of the pumpkins were eventually damaged beyond hope.

A few made it through the event with only some nasty cracks, but even these were said to be in a vegetative state.

It is safe to say that just about everyone is hoping for a pumpkin drop next year.

Well, maybe not the pumpkins