Crash involving military trucks kills sailor, injures five others near San Onofre
A 26-year-old sailor was killed and five others were injured in a chain-reaction crash involving a convoy of military trucks on south Interstate 5 near San Onofre State Beach Tuesday morning, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The crash happened south of Basilone Road about 6:50 a.m. when the convoy of five trucks began slowing for unknown reasons, CHP Officer Juan Escobar said.
“One of the truck trailers was pushed forward into the cab, causing fatal injuries to the driver,” who died at the scene, Escobar said in a statement.
The name of the sailor was not released.
“The sailor was assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5 based at Naval Base Ventura County,” said Brian O’Rourke, a Navy Region Southwest spokesman.
The other injured sailors — three men and two women, all in their early 20s — were taken to Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital and Mission Hospital in Orange County for medical treatment. One of the men suffered serious injuries; the four other sailors sustained minor injuries, Escobar said.
All the sailors involved in the crash were attached to the Ventura County construction battalion, said Lt. Cmdr. Amber Lewis, a Naval Expeditionary Combat Command spokeswoman.
“We mourn the loss of our shipmate, our thoughts and prayers are with the Sailor’s family, friends, and coworkers during this difficult time,” Lewis said in a statement. The convoy was on its way to Camp Pendleton to pick up equipment from a field exercise, Lewis said.
Anyone with information was asked to call the CHP’s Oceanside office at (760) 643-3400.
Staff writer Andrew Dyer contributed to this report.
San Diego police ID officer, man he shot downtown
Police on Tuesday identified the San Diego officer and the man he shot and wounded last week when the man allegedly pulled out a knife and threatened the officer near the Gaslamp Quarter.
Officer Kelly Besker, who has been with the San Diego Police Department for 26 years, shot 69year-old Stephen Wilson just after 7 p.m. on Thursday night near Third Avenue and G Street, according to police.
Besker was flagged down just before the shooting by someone who reported Wilson was armed with a knife and causing a commotion on a street corner, forcing pedestrians to walk into the street to get around him, according to San Diego police homicide Capt. Rich Freedman.
Police said that as Besker approached Wilson, who was standing on the corner eating from a bowl of food, the officer ordered him not to touch the knife. But Wilson allegedly drew the knife and threatened Besker.
The officer shot him at least once, police said. Medics took Wilson to a hospital, where he underwent surgery and was in stable condition the night of the shooting.
Police and witnesses described Wilson as being homeless or transient. Besker is assigned to the Police Department’s neighborhood policing division, which has homeless outreach as its central component. It was not immediately known if Besker and Wilson had encounters before the shooting.
Thursday was at least the second time Besker has opened fire on a person as a San Diego police officer. In 2009, he and two other officers fatally shot Lonnie Glasco minutes after the Metropolitan Transit System mechanic shot and killed two fellow MTS employees at a downtown bus-maintenance depot.
The district attorney cleared Besker and the other officers in that shooting, ruling they were justified in using deadly force against Glasco, who pointed a revolver at them.
State laws dictating when officers are justified in using deadly force changed in 2020 with the implementation of AB 392, which allows law enforcement officers to use deadly force only when “necessary,” when their life or the lives of others are in imminent danger and when there is no other alternative to de-escalate the situaand tion, such as using non-lethal methods.
The legislation marked a change from the previous standard, which allowed using deadly force when an officer had a “reasonable” fear of imminent harm.
Woman, 20, killed on I-8 after surviving crash
A 20-year-old woman who exited her car after crashing it on the freeway in El Cajon was hit and killed early Tuesday, authorities said.
The driver was heading east on Interstate 8 near First Street when she lost control of her Toyota Matrix for an unknown reason and struck the center divider, which sent her car into the traffic lanes of the freeway, said California Highway Patrol Officer Travis Garrow.
The woman then got out of her car, which was disabled in the far right lane, and stood near her vehicle.
That’s when a 24-year-old man driving east on the freeway in an Infinity G35 slammed into her disabled vehicle, which then struck her.
“This impact caused the female to be propelled into the No. 1 lane where she sustained fatal injuries,” Garrow said. The woman was hit by two more cars driving east on the freeway, he said.
The driver of the Infinity sustained major injuries in the crash was transported to a hospital. He was wearing his seat belt at the time of the crash, Garrow said.
The other drivers involved in the incident were not injured.
The name of the woman who was killed was not released. The county Medical Examiner’s Office will notify her family.
Teen girl severely injured after being hit by car
A teenage girl suffered lifethreatening injuries when she was struck by a car that ran a red light in the Mission Beach area, police said Monday.
The crash happened about 6:55 p.m. Sunday on West Mission Bay Drive east of Bayside Lane, San Diego police Officer John Buttle said.
A 63-year-old man heading west in a 1998 Lexus sedan ran a red light outside the parking lot for Bonita Cove and struck a 17year-old girl who was walking north inside a marked crosswalk just east of Bayside Lane, Buttle said.
The victim was taken to a hospital for treatment of life-threatening injuries, including a brain bleed, multiple facial fractures and fractures in her right arm and right leg, the officer said.
The Lexus driver remained at the scene. Intoxication was not a factor in the crash, Buttle said.
City News Service