Dramatic Rollover Crash On Ortega Highway Injures Southwest Riverside Co. Man

WILDOMAR, CA — It's just 18 miles as the crow flies from the I-15 freeway to the Pacific Coast, but getting there is not a straight and easy drive. Driver seeking the most direct route east to Lake Elsinore and Temecula, or west to San Juan Capistrano, must navigate the Ortega Highway. After dark, though, that curving switchback is pitch black, and careful drivers slowly negotiate the back-and-forth curves between sheer drops into the canyon on one side and rocky cliffs on the other. With multiple collisions on this roadway in September, the SR-74 is rapidly living up to the nickname "dead man's curve."

On Wednesday, Sept. 20 Scott Hollis, a Winchester resident and coach for the Arsenal FC South soccer club, was heading to San Juan Capistrano for a meeting. On his way west on Ortega Freeway as he neared San Juan Capistrano, Hollis saw emergency vehicles headed toward the curvy part of the road. He knew a severe accident must have occurred.

"At about 4 p.m. I was on the flat part of the road, just past the ranger station when I saw the fire trucks and ambulance, and fire rescue headed that way," Hollis said. "Then, rounding another curve, there was a small wreck, people were flashing lights and waving arms, and I saw a Volkswagen Beetle that had crashed into the back of a pickup truck."

This is not an uncommon sight for drivers of the Ortega Highway. Hollis said he witnessed no fewer than eight wrecks this month.

According to California Highway Patrol officer Rafael Reynoso, there is no clear reason for the number of crashes on that road. In September alone, the CHP on the Orange County side has so far investigated six major collisions. The CHP on the Riverside County has investigated several more — many of them deadly.

• SEE ALSO: (Another) Deadly Crash On The Ortega Highway Reported; Victim ID'd

"The number of collisions fluctuates," Reynoso said. "There is no pattern to crashes on the Ortega Highway. It just varies."

On Hollis's way back to Winchester, three cars raced by, passing multiple vehicles at a time on the straightaways.

"It looked like an accident waiting to happen," Hollis said.

Veteran SR-74 drivers know that collisions on the narrow road mean hours of backups, which sometimes necessitate turning around and taking the long way home. Lives are lost, too.

On Wednesday night, just past the ranger station at mile marker 13, Hollis saw brake lights. Another crash. People were milling on the side of the road, pulling over on the narrow roadway, walking to the crash victims. A pickup truck had flipped upside down in the lanes.

"The male driver is from Wildomar, driving a 2015 Toyota Tacoma pickup," Reynoso said. "He complained of pain but refused transport to the hospital."

The CHP is investigating an overturned truck incident, according to Reynoso.

"I took the picture five cars away from the truck," Hollis said. "There were people sitting on the side of the road, and whatever was in the back of the truck ended up all over the road. I just wish that drivers would slow down."

Photo, courtesy Scott Hollis