A matter of inches may have saved one man’s life Saturday in Davis.
While driving in the fast lane heading westbound on Interstate 80 at about 1:15 p.m., Thomas Baird, 73, fell asleep at the wheel and drifted toward the center divider near Mace Boulevard, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.
Baird, a Lafayette resident who said he had been up early fishing, woke up, but jerked the wheel too hard to the right, sending his car rolling across three lanes of highway and into a tree on the embankment adjacent to the Mace Boulevard on-ramp.
The tree crushed the passenger side of the truck, a Toyota Tacoma, and the entire dashboard, but narrowly missed the driver’s side. Emergency responders used the jaws of life to peel Baird from his vehicle, and the man walked away from the accident with only a few minor scratches, according to CHP Sgt. Andy Hill.