Voicemail, then heartbreak
Unanswered calls lead to a grim realization for the stepdaughter of man killed in crash.
When Maylette Brown saw news reports about a deadly freeway crash near Rialto, one of the cars looked familiar to her.
Brown, who was on her way to visit her parents in Twentynine Palms, called her stepfather, Duddley White. He didn’t pick up. As the hours passed, she kept calling. By 8:30 p.m., the calls were going straight to voicemail.
“At 10:30, I got the phone call from the Sheriff’s Department in Twentynine Palms,” said Brown, 44, of Winchester. “I just told them I knew, I felt it, and I just wanted to make sure.”
White, 74, was one of five people killed when a concrete pumping truck traveling east on the 10 Freeway near Rialto swerved through the center divider shortly before 1 p.m. Friday. The truck careened into the westbound lanes, crashing into a smaller truck and four other cars and sparking a fire, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The five people, all occupants of vehicles struck by the truck, were pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. The truck driver, who was not identified, sustained only minor injuries and was not hospitalized, said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Spencer Badal.
The cause of the crash remains unclear. The victims were severely burned, and none have been positively identified yet, Badal said.
The crash left several vehicles overturned and charred, shutting down some lanes for more than 12 hours, authorities said. The freeway was not fully reopened until about 8 a.m. Saturday, Badal said.
CHP investigators will conduct a “full mechanical review” of the truck, but Badal said those hoping for answers will probably have to wait.
“Their report will take a considerable amount of time,” he said.
The truck was registered to Western Concrete Pumping, based in Vista in San Diego County, Badal said. An employee who answered the phone at the company’s office declined to comment. The company was formed in 1986 and does business in California, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arizona, according to its website.
Brown said her stepfather, who raised her from a young age, was a retired machinist and avid billiards player who cared for her mother in Twentynine Palms. A consummate handyman, White still performed repairs on all the family vehicles. He was driving home from a hardware store when the wreck occurred, Brown said.
“He was well-known, very respected,” she said of White’s reputation around Twentynine Palms.