One dead, one injured in traffic collision
A 55-year-old Lancaster man is dead and a 23-year-old Palmdale woman seriously injured following a traffic collision on Highway 36, near Neenach, Thursday.
About 7:10 p.m., the driver of a 2016 Dodge Durango, identified as Abigail Lua, of Palmdale, was traveling eastbound on Highway 138, near 245th Street West.
At the same time, a motorcyclist, whose identity has not been released pending notification of his next of kin, was traveling westbound on the same highway on a 2001 Harley Davidson motorcycle.
“As both parties traveled in opposing directions, preliminary reports state, the Dodge veered over the double yellow lines colliding with the motorcycle,” California Highway Patrol Officer J. Escobar wrote in her collision report.
“After this collision, the Dodge SUV veered to the left then back to the right where she drove off the south shoulder and landed down an embankment, just east of the California Aqueduct.
“The motorcyclist was ejected over the concrete bridge wall colliding with a metal/barbed wire fence and landing on the north/east dirt shoulder with the north/east area of the Aqueduct,” she wrote in her report.
Lua was taken to Antelope Valley Medical Center with major injuries.
The motorcyclist was pronounced deceased on scene by paramedics with the Los Angeles County Fire Department who arrived at the crash scene at 7:42 p.m.
“This call was for a motorcycle on fire,” Fire Department spokesman Austin Bennett said.
“There was one person (dead on arrival) and one victim taken by helicopter to the hospital,” he said.
Based on the preliminary investigation, drugs and/or alcohol do not appear to be a factor in this collision, Escobar wrote in his report.
The cause of this collision is still under investigation by the California Highway Patrol, Newhall Area office.