Two young children riding in the back of their father’s car when he crashed
in a suspected drunken-driving episode Thursday night were terrified as they
begged a Good Samaritan to pull them out of the car, a person who witnessed
the crash said Friday.
Gabriel Vaughn of Rohnert Park was the first to get to the car after Santa
Rosa resident James Michael Bowser smashed into a tree on Petaluma Hill Road
shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday.
Vaughn said he heard the young children screaming as he stopped his own
car: ”Daddy’s scaring us! Daddy’s scaring us!” he said they said as they
asked to be pulled from the car.
The children were buckled into child safety seats and did not appear to be
injured, Vaughn said, but were clearly distraught.
Vaughn said Bowser was unable or unwilling to answer any of the questions
he posed to him, and walked away from the crash site and down an embankment,
where he seemed unable to find his way, Vaughn said.
Once authorities arrived, Bowser at first appeared cooperative but
gradually began to laugh and even dance, Vaughn said.
En route to jail, he became combative, kicking a CHP officer in the face,
authorities said.
The scene played out on Petaluma Hill Road. The CHP said Bowser, 37, was
southbound with his 2-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son in the back of his
1990 Mercedes when he clipped the rear of a pickup that slowed to turn right
onto Snyder Lane toward Rohnert Park.
Bowser continued southbound, then veered off the right side of the road and
smashed into a mailbox, a speed-limit sign and a county road sign, the CHP
said.
He made a U-turn and was heading back north on Petaluma Hill Road when he
swerved across the oncoming lane and struck a large tree on the west side of
the road, the CHP said.
Bowser’s air bag deployed and he was spared injury, the CHP said. The
driver of the pickup, Debra L. Harris, 55, of Rohnert Park, also was not
injured.
CHP Officer Jon Sloat confirmed the witness Vaughn’s involvement with the
incident.
Sloat also said the behavior detailed in Vaughn’s account fit with
officers’ description of a man who answered authorities’ questions with
off-the-wall, nonsensical responses, was verbally and physically aggressive,
and was too intoxicated to figure out how to get back out of the embankment
area in which officers found him.
Vaughn said when he came upon the car, he found Bowser wrestling with his
driver’s seat, which he kept backing up into his daughter, who was seated
behind him.
Vaughn said he tried to ask Bowser his name, the kids’ names and other
questions and could not get a response. He finally pushed Bowser aside so he
could get the children out of the car, he said.
Bowser, meanwhile, walked away, about 60 feet north of the crash site and
20 feet down an embankment, where he got confused and stuck, Vaughn said.
Vaughn, his wife and another passerby stayed with the children and kept
watch on Bowser while awaiting authorities.
CHP officers arrested Bowser for suspected child endangerment, hit-and-run
and drunken driving, authorities said.
Bowser was booked into jail for suspected assault on a peace officer, in
addition to the previous charges, though he was later released after posting
bond for $25,000 bail, jail personnel said.
Bowser’s children were taken to a local hospital for evaluation and later
were turned over to their mother, Sloat said.
You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or
mary.callahan@pressdemocrat
.com.
