Numerous Lost Coast Outpost readers have contacted us about the following car crash near the Pepperwood exit this morning. “I don’t know how anyone lived,” said one reader who passed by the scene.

But live they did. Officer Patrick Bourassa of the CHP’s Garverville office tells the Outpost that the single vehicle involved in the crash — an SUV — held up “surprisingly well” during the crash.

The vehicle was traveling north on 101 when it crossed the center divider, went across the southbound lanes, collided with an embankment, then traveled back across into the northbound lanes and flipped over. Northbound traffic was stalled out at the site for a short amount of time, before it was diverted into one of the southbound lanes.

First responders are still at the scene as of 1 p.m., and all traffic is still being throttled into the southbound lanes, because environmental crews are cleaning up gasoline and oil spilled by the crash. 

Bourassa said that the cause of the crash is still under investigation.

Below:The incident as it was chronicled by CHP dispatchers.