Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Woman’s Leg Severed as Car Crashes at Rest Area

Part of a woman’s leg was severed when a car crashed into a picnic area at Six Flags Magic Mountain, authorities said Tuesday.

Emily Robison, 42, an elementary schoolteacher’s aide from Bakersfield, was sitting at a picnic table in a rest area in the Magic Mountain parking lot Monday, said her husband, Allen. They were with about a dozen friends and family members who scattered as the car smashed into the table, he said.

“I barely got out of the way of the car,” he said. “She didn’t have time to.”

The car was driven by Geraldine Starkey, 42, of Lakeside, who lost control after her boyfriend, Jeremy Zahorik, pushed the vehicle so that the engine would start, said Wendy Moore of the California Highway Patrol. She said she did not know how fast the car was traveling when it crashed.

Starkey and two other people in the picnic area were also hospitalized with injuries, authorities said.

Emily Robison’s leg was amputated just below the knee in the accident, and she was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, her husband said.

Robison said his wife is expected to remain at the hospital for about a week, after which her family hopes to bring her home or to a hospital in Bakersfield.

Starkey was taken to Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills with a broken leg, Moore said. Two Bakersfield residents in the picnic area, Pamela Moore, 39, and Stephen Moore, 12, were treated for minor injuries.

No arrests or citations resulted, but the accident remains under investigation, the CHP’s Moore said.

The accident is the first in the park’s picnic area, and there are no plans to close the area as a result, Six Flags spokesman Palmer Moody said.