Authorities Thursday publicly identified an 18-year-old man who died last weekend in a rainy-day traffic crash involving an unoccupied California Highway Patrol cruiser on Interstate 8 near Grossmont Center mall.
Eugene Nelson of El Cajon was heading west on the storm-drenched freeway when the 2014 Nissan Sentra he was driving plowed into the parked patrol vehicle just east of Baltimore Drive in La Mesa about 11:45 a.m. Saturday, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Paramedics took Nelson to Sharp Memorial Hospital, where he died Monday evening.
At the time of the fatal crash, Highway Patrol personnel were investigating a pair of solo car crashes in the area, CHP public affairs Officer Jared Grieshaber said.
The cruiser that was struck was parked partially in the far left-hand westbound lane of the freeway and partially in a center divider with its emergency lights activated, Grieshaber said.
–City News Service
