Breaking News: Robb Report Media Event Turns Tragic With Multiple Crashes, Serious Injuries [Updated]

Robb Report’s Car of the Year Event turned tragic with a head-on accident that sent multiple people to the hospital with serious injuries.

This past weekend, two Robb Report staff members were involved in a serious accident near Lake Baryessa, outside Napa, California. A report from the Napa Valley Register identified Chrstina Cheever, 43, Darin Greenblatt, 52, and Ashley Chung, 41, as passengers in a 2018 Ford driving on Highway 128, about 20 miles north of Napa. The car in question is likely a high-end Mustang, like the Bullitt pictured below. The incident happened around 1 PM Saturday, as Cheever drove westbound on Highway 128 into across the center line for unknown reasons. Cheever ended up colliding with a 2014 Honda heading eastbound, driven by Phillip Benson, a 42-year-old Sacramento local. Another passenger, Taryn Benson, was also in the Honda.

Major injuries reported

CHP reported all five passengers – three in the Ford and two in the Honda – suffered injuries as a result of the collision. At least one passenger was airlifted to a local hospital, according to published reports. Highway 128 was shut down in both directions for several hours as the injured passengers were transported to two local hospitals and responders cleared the wreckage.

Christina Cheever is currently Senior VP of Live Media for Robb Report’s parent company, Penske Media Corporation, according to her LinkedIn page. Darin Greenblatt is Director of Live Events for the Robb Report. Ashley Chung, the third passenger, is one of the judges for Robb Report’s 2018 Car of the Year. At this point, the exact status of all involved in the accident is unknown, beyond the fact that at least one passenger suffered major, potentially life-threatening injuries.

We’re working on getting the updated conditions of all passengers involved in the accident. We will update this post as we receive more information.

Update: CHP Response

California Highway Patrol – Golden Gate Division’s Air Operations posted a facebook video of the response effort to Saturday’s head-on collision. Jalopnik recently covered the incident and found more information including the video above, followed by a caption from CHP:

** Hwy 128 Major Injury Collsion**

At approximately 12:55 pm, CHP H-32 responded with Napa County Fire, Cal Fire, AMR Napa County, REACH Air Medical Services and Saint Helena Fire to a report of a head on collision on Hwy 128 near Chiles Pope Valley Road.

Upon the arrival of the first fire fighters at the scene a Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) was declared.

CHP H-32 and REACH landed near the scene at an established landing zone. REACH transported one patient to the Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital as CHP H-32 transported another to the Queen of the Valley Hospital. AMR transported the rest of the patients to various Napa County Hospitals.

The Napa CHP Office is the investigating agency. Footage by CHP Air-37 who was overhead assisting Napa CHP.

A Twitter user, in response to another piece in the Napa Valley Register, claimed to have witness multiple vehicles driving recklessly through the area. He said the following:

The @RobbReport Supercar drivers at Meadowood this weekend should adopt. I was cycling on the trail and have never seen such craziness. Easy to track the vehicles…they all had RR license plates. @CHP_Napa Next year get a room (or track day)!

— Mike Straka (@MikeStraka2) November 5, 2018

Ferrari crashed at Napa vineyard

In a separate Sunday incident, Instagram user Frederick Bayles posted a photo of a wrecked Ferrari 812 Superfast at a vineyard in Napa Valley, California. The post has since been removed (11/6/18 update). While the $335,000+ supercar clearly sustained serious damage, there aren’t any reports of major injuries related to that incident.

The Robb Report is a luxury lifestyle magazine that hosts two Car of the Year events – one on each coast – wherein invited guests evaluate a range of high-end performance cars.

Update 11/6/18 @ 1 PM MST: A Robb Report spokesperson notified TFL that Saturday’s accident was not part of the magazine’s Car of the Year evaluation. The accident occurred on a “non-driving day”, and was not part of the official schedule.

Corrections 11/5/18:

Our statement describing the Robb Report incorrectly stated, “writers, editors and invited guests evaluate a range of high-end performance cars.” Editors select the cars, while invited guests evaluate the cars, usually in pairs.

Ashley Chung, the third passenger mentioned in a serious crash, is a representative of Korean Air as one of the sponsors of Robb Report’s 2018 Car of the Year, according to our sources.

The original story stated the head-on collision occurred Sunday, November 4th. It actually happened on Saturday, November 3rd.