A man died Tuesday morning in a bizarre incident after his vehicle collided with a deer on a toll road overpass near the Sweetwater Reservoir in the La Presa neighborhood.

The crash happened about 4:40 a.m. on the northbound state Route 125 toll road overpass approaching state Route 54, California Highway Patrol Officer Tommy Doerr said. That’s where the vehicle struck the deer, killing the animal, and then became disabled in the right lane of the two-lane highway overpass.

What happened next is unclear, but somehow a man whom authorities presume was driving the crashed car ended up off falling over the wall on the overpass, plummeting roughly 50 feet to his death, Doerr said.

“We don’t know how this happened, because the vehicle stayed on the bridge while the driver went over the side of the wall,” Doerr said. “We don’t know if this person was in fact the driver, but that’s what we’re assuming. Nobody else was around.”

Caltrans issued a SigAlert for northbound SR-125 that was expected to remain in effect until about 6:45 a.m., though one of two lanes in the area remained open.

— City News Service

>> Subscribe to Times of San Diego’s free daily email newsletter! Click here