Crime & Safety
UPDATED: Suicide Suspected in Pedestrian Death on Murrieta Freeway
The 24-year-old Cathedral City man died at the scene of his injury early Friday on northbound Interstate 215 in Murrieta, just south of Murrieta Hot Springs Road.
UPDATE 5:25 p.m. July 26:
A fatal pedestrian accident that occurred early Friday on Interstate 215 in Murrieta is being investigated as a suicide, according to a California Highway Patrol report obtained by Patch.
The report states that at 2:21 a.m. Friday, CHP was alerted to an accident involving a car and a person walking on the freeway.
Find out what's happening in Murrietawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The responding CHP officer wrote that a 24-year-old Hispanic male had been walking southbound in the fast lane of the northbound Interstate 215 when he was struck by a 2009 white Chevrolet Cobalt being driven in the same lane by a 26-year-old Lake Elsinore man.
“The driver of the Chevrolet had insufficient time to take evasive action,” the officer wrote, about the accident that occurred about three-tenths of a mile south of Murrieta Hot Springs Road.“The front of the Chevrolet struck the pedestrian, causing multiple major blunt force traumatic injuries.”
The pedestrian—who had not been identified as of Friday afternoon pending notification of his next of kin—succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at 2:45 a.m.
CHP is investigating the incident as a suicide, as “physical evidence and witness statements determined that the pedestrian’s actions were deliberate.”
—Update by Maggie Avants
Find out what's happening in Murrietawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
ORIGINAL POST 9 a.m. July 26:
A pedestrian was struck by a car and killed today on northbound I-215 Freeway in Murrieta, authorities said.
The 24-year-old Cathedral City man died at the scene of his injury, which occurred about 2:20 a.m. south of Murrieta Hot Springs Road, the Riverside County Coroner's Bureau reported.
Authorities withheld the name of the dead man, pending family notification. The death was being investigated by the California Highway Patrol and the Murrieta Police Department. --City News Service
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