Teen Killed, ID'd In 'Airborne' Ortega Highway Crash

LAKE ELSINORE, CA — A teenage boy was killed and another was seriously injured in a weekend rollover wreck along the Ortega Highway, police and fire officials report. The crash was reported around 2 a.m. Saturday near the Candy Store in the 34000 block of SR-74.

When firefighter paramedics got to the scene, they found a vehicle on its roof with two occupants trapped inside, according to the Riverside County Fire Department. Only one of them would survive.

"...[U]pon a preliminary investigation at the scene, it was determined that [an 18-year-old man] was driving [a Pontiac Firebird] at a speed greater than the 30 miles per hour precautionary road sign," CHP Officer Mike Lassig said in an incident report.

"For unknown reasons, [the driver] failed to negotiate his speed while rounding the curve and ran off the roadway striking the adjacent steel guardrail," Lassig said. "Upon impact [the Pontiac] went airborne over the guardrail where the right side of [the Pontiac] collided into the adjacent large tree where [the Pontiac] came to a rest on its top facing a westerly direction."

The boy who was sitting in the right, front passenger seat suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene, according to Lassig. He's since been identified by the Riverside County coroner's office as 17-year-old Jonathan Gonzalez of Anaheim.

The driver, also from Anaheim, was taken to Inland Valley Regional Medical Center with major injuries, according to Lassig.

No other vehicles were involved in the wreck. The Temecula Area CHP is continuing to investigate the crash.

Another deadly wreck was reported the very next day along the same stretch of roadway. See: Deadly Crash Closes Ortega Highway/SR-74 Between RivCo, OC

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Patch file photo by Renee Schiavone