Updated at 10:20 a.m. Sept. 18, 2015
A 24-year-old Camp Pendleton Marine was fatally injured early Friday when his car veered off state Route 163 in Balboa Park, struck a pillar and burst into flames.
The victim’s white BMW sedan crashed along the northbound highway near the Laurel Street bridge overcrossing shortly after 3 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol and the county Medical Examiner’s Office. It went up an embankment, struck the bridge pillar and caught fire.
Passers-by pulled the unresponsive and severely injured man from the wreckage. He was taken to a Scripps Mercy Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries less than an hour after the crash, authorities said. His name was not immediately released.
The access roads from downtown San Diego to northbound state Route 163 were temporarily closed following the crash, as was the connector from Interstate 5, Caltrans reported.
— City News Service
