Wood Post Arrows Through Truck Window On I-15: Here's What Happened

TEMECULA, CA — A sleepy driver collided with an I-15 guardrail near the Overland Bridge Thursday morning, California Highway Patrol reports, sending a wooden guardrail post through a truck's windshield on the opposite side of the freeway, injuring a driver, according to California Highway Patrol reports.

Shortly before 8:15 a.m., multiple 911 callers reported the initial crash on the Northbound I-15 at Overland Drive, involving a gray Hyundai Elantra striking a rail and ending up in the center divider. Moments later, CHP dispatch received a second call that a "brick went through the windshield" of a Dodge Ram pickup truck. Debris from the object, which was not a brick at all, but a large guardrail post, cut the vehicle occupant's face, resulting in minor injury.

"The truck driver, heading southbound on I-15, exited at Rancho California Road and stopped at the Chevron Station at Jefferson Avenue," CHP Officer Brian Seel told Patch. He was taken by ambulance to Rancho Springs Hospital to be treated for injuries.

Though initial CHP reports suggested that the truck driver had been "struck by a brick," it was later learned that the object was actually a guardrail post from the Overland Drive incident, according to Seel.

Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department, California Highway Patrol, and Riverside County Sheriff's Department all responded to the scene at the 28900 block of Rancho California Road.

CHP officers at the scene determined that the initial crash was likely caused by a driver who was "extremely tired or sleepy at the wheel," Seel informed Patch, just as dangerous as driving while intoxicated.

"It's a common crash. People who are sleepy drive just as poorly as drunk drivers," he said. "If you're driving a vehicle at 70 miles per hour while sleepy, that's 70 miles per hour too fast."