A 51-year-old Napa woman lost her life on Monday evening when she crashed her car into a tree.

Karen Nelsen was airlifted by Cal Star helicopter to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital where she was pronounced dead, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The crash happened at 5:55 p.m., Monday, on Golden Gate Drive, just south of Imola Avenue, near the CHP office.

Nelsen was northbound on Golden Gate Drive in her 1991 Honda Civic, CHP Officer Jaret Paulson said.

“There is one small curve in the road at that location. Her car went straight and crashed into a tree on the east side of the shoulder of the road,” Paulson said.

Nelsen was wearing her seat belt. Alcohol or drugs do not appear to have played a part in the fatality, Paulson said.

Paulson said Nelsen has no immediate family in the Napa Valley.

Traffic on Golden Gate Drive was reduced to one-way traffic control for about 30 minutes.

This is the third traffic fatality in Napa County in the past eight days.

On Aug. 24, 17-year-old Stacey Juliano of Pope Valley died, three days after her car drifted off the Pope Valley Road and hit an oak tree.

On Aug. 25, Rosario Benitez Fernandez, 45, of Rutherford, died when he darted across Highway 29 at Oakville Cross Road and was struck by a northbound driver from St. Helena.