Car crossed several warning markers on Gilman Springs Road in double-fatal wreck

Car crossed several warning markers on Gilman Springs Road in double-fatal wreck

by Richard K. De Atley

Two people died over the weekend when a Lexus sedan crossed several warning markers into the opposite lane and crashed head-on into a Toyota van carrying six people on Gilman Springs Road, the California Highway Patrol said on Monday.

Drugs, alcohol and fatigue had not been ruled out as factors in the 5:30 a.m. Sunday crash that was a half-mile west of Highway 79, near San Jacinto, CHP Officer Darren Meyer said.

The crash killed a passenger in each vehicle, Meyer said.

Nestor Canales, 31, of Riverside , was identified by the Riverside County Coroner’s Office Monday as one of those who died. Canales was in the front-passenger seat of the 2004 Lexus.

The other fatality was a 64-year-old woman from Los Angeles who has not been publicly identified by the coroner’s office. She was in the 2008 Toyota Sienna.

The driver of the van, a 52-year-old Los Angeles man, and his four surviving passengers all had serious injuries and were taken to a hospital.

The Lexus driver was trapped inside the car and had to be cut out by Cal Fire-Riverside County firefighters; the surviving Lexus passenger, a 24-year-old Moreno Valley woman who was in the right-rear seat, had major injuries. Both were taken to a hospital.

Meyer said the crash happened when the Lexus, heading east on Gilman Springs Road, crossed two sets of solid, double-yellow lines, a center rumble strip that causes loud tire noise, and through flexible posts that mark the lane division, before it struck the westbound van.

All credit goes to Richard K. De Atley Originally published on https://www.dailynews.com