Crime & Safety

No Injuries When Suburban Flips on I-215

A large box of debris was to blame for a rollover crash on southbound Interstate 215 Friday evening in Murrieta.

A Murrieta woman and her teenage son escaped injury Friday night when their sports utility vehicle rolled off Interstate 215 in Murrieta.

The accident happened at about 7:06 p.m. on southbound Interstate 215, just south of Clinton Keith Road.

Kristin Richardson said she was merging onto the freeway from Clinton Keith Road when she saw a large box in the road and swerved to miss it.

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Other cars were swerving, too, Richardson said, and as she tried to regain control of her Chevrolet Suburban, it went up onto the side embankment and rolled, landing upside down.

"I was just hanging upside down in my car, that was the scariest thing," an obviously shaken Richardson told Patch.

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Richardson's husband, Shawn, was a few cars behind and said he saw the whole thing.

"She was taking our son to his first date," Shawn told Patch.

Their son, Austin, said: "A bunch of nice people—like 15—stopped to help us."

California Highway Patrol Officer Harvey Ray was on scene and said the Richardsons appeared unhurt and were going to seek their own medical treatment.

Kristin said she wasn't in any pain, and didn't appear to have any noticeable abrasions.

Austin had several scrapes from climbing through the shattered broken passenger side window to get out of the car.

He said the Good Samaritans helped pull his mother out before paramedics arrived.

The box Richardson had swerved to miss was quite large, but only had Styrofoam in it, according to the CHP officer.

Ray said it was an empty baby crib box, and one lane of traffic was closed as the wreckage was cleared.

"I don't know if it just fell (off a vehicle), but it was waving around in the lanes," Ray said an eye witness told him.

Kristin and her son were not seriously injured in the crash, Ray said, because  "they were wearing their seat belts."

Ray said the Suburban probably traveled about 45 feet after it left the roadway.


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