Three separate motorcycle crashes across San Diego county Sunday morning left two riders injured and one dead, officials reported.
The crashes happened over a span of three hours, with the first occurring around 8:30 a.m. in the Cleveland National Forest on East Grade Road, between Will Valley Road and Panorama Trail, near Palomar Mountain, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The area is about two miles north of state Route 76 and about 10 miles east of Pauma Valley.
According to Cal Fire Capt. Issac Sanchez, a rider fell of the bike on an empty, winding road and was taken to Palomar Medical Center.
Sanchez had no information on the extent of the rider’s injuries.
A man was also seriously injured when his motorcycle hit a car at a Rancho Penasquitos intersection Sunday, police said.
Just before 11:30 a.m., a motorcyclist headed southbound on Carmel Mountain Road at Paseo Montalban attempted to turn in front of an oncoming Toyota Camry and crashed into the driver’s side of the car, Officer Steve Bourasa of the San Diego Police Department said.
The biker, a 63-year-old man, was taken to a nearby hospital for injuries that were described as “serious but non-life-threatening.”
The 25-year-old man behind the wheel of the Camry was not injured, Bourasa said.
At around the same time as the Rancho Penasquitos wreck, a motorcyclist smashed his bike into the rear of a sheriff’s patrol car, as the deputy made a left turn, and was killed in Encinitas Sunday.
Witnesses told deputies the biker was speeding on northbound Highway 101, sheriff’s Deputy Tammy Bennetts said.
A deputy, who was on duty, was headed south on Highway 101 in a patrol vehicle and began a left turn as the bike approached.
The motorcycle struck the rear passenger side door of the deputy’s car and died at the scene, Bennetts said.
No estimate on the motorcycle’s speed was immediately available, nor was it revealed immediately if the deputy had been responding to an emergency or had activated the car’s lights or siren.
No names were immediately released.
–City News Service, staff