A 23-year-old motorist was killed on Interstate 15 just south of Temecula Friday when she stepped out of her car after crashing on the freeway and was hit by a sedan whose driver couldn’t stop in time.
The fatality occurred shortly before 5 a.m. Friday on northbound I-15 at Rainbow Valley Boulevard, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Officer Mike Lassig said the victim, identified only as a Murrieta woman, was at the wheel of a 2021 Honda Accord going northbound in the slow lane at an undetermined speed when it drifted onto the right shoulder.
“The Honda crossed over the shoulder and collided with a freeway perimeter chain link fence,” Lassig said. “The vehicle traveled through the fence and collided with a hillside embankment, causing it to ricochet … back toward the northbound traffic lanes. The Honda came to rest facing in a southeasterly direction, straddling the No. 2 and 3 lanes.”
According to Lassig, the woman immediately got out of her car and “stood in the No. 2 lane.”
A 38-year-old man driving a 2017 Honda Civic approached the location seconds later going roughly 70 mph and “observed (the woman) standing directly in front of him,” the CHP spokesman said.
“The party applied his brakes but was unable to avoid colliding into the woman,” he said. “The impact … threw her in a northerly direction, where she came to rest in the northbound No. 2 lane.”
The Civic driver, identified only as an Oceanside man, stopped on the freeway.
Riverside County Fire Department paramedics reached the location minutes later and pronounced the woman dead at the scene.
The Civic driver suffered an unspecified minor injury and was taken to Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar for treatment.
There were three minor spinoff collisions that followed the initial deadly wreck, but none resulted in injuries, according to Lassig.
All northbound lanes on I-15 from San Diego County into Riverside County were shut down just after 5 a.m., prompting a SigAlert due to the hard closure and ensuing miles-long traffic jam.
Lanes were gradually reopened after 9 a.m., but the closure was not lifted entirely until after 10 a.m.
An investigation into the deadly crash was ongoing.