South Bay Freeway Pileup Leaves Driver Dead

NATIONAL CITY, CA — A predawn South Bay freeway pileup left a motorist dead Thursday and a DUI suspect under arrest.

The fatal chain-reaction series of crashes occurred on the southbound side of Interstate 5 in National City shortly after 2:30 a.m. Thursday, initially involving a Honda Accord, a Jeep Liberty and a Nissan Frontier, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Following the collisions just north of state Route 54, the driver of the Nissan fled on foot, CHP public-affairs Officer Salvador Castro said.

Moments after those crashes, a Jeep Patriot plowed into the disabled Honda, and the impact hurled the woman who had been driving the latter vehicle out onto the roadway, Castro said. Paramedics took her and the driver of the Patriot to a trauma center, where the woman was pronounced dead. Her identity was withheld pending family notification.

The driver of the Patriot, a 37-year-old Imperial Beach resident, was arrested at the hospital on suspicion of DUI. His name was not immediately available.

No other injuries were reported.

The pileup left lanes blocked on the freeway in the area for about three hours.

— City News Service