Five Tehama County inmates bound for High Desert State Prison spent Thursday morning trapped in the van that was bringing them to Susanville.
The California Highway Patrol reports that the Tehama County prison van overturned on Highway 36 early Thursday morning, trapping inmates for almost two hours.
According to the CHP 52 year-old Red Bluff resident Christine Farmer was driving the van in snowy conditions on Highway 36 near Chester.
Farmer had a corrections officer sitting in the right front seat, and five inmates in the back of the van when she lost control of her vehicle on the slippery surface. The road was covered with packed snow and snow was falling according to the Highway Patrol, and the van full of inmates slid off the road in a northeasterly direction where it rolled onto its right side.
According to Officer Samuel Glucklich from the Susanville Office of the CHP the inmates were trapped in the van for almost two hours, finally being freed about 10:20a.m.
Both Farmer and passenger Lester Squier walked away with no injuries. The four inmates complained of minor injuries.
