HEMET: Small car packed with 6 people plummets 100 feet off roadway, driver reportedly DUI

HEMET — Details are beginning to emerge after a reportedly drunk driver speeding down Vista Del Valle from Simpson Park ran off the road and plummeted 100 feet down the side of the mountain, coming to rest upside down at the bottom of a ravine near a home.

Reports from the scene indicate as many as six people were packed into the small BMW, including a young woman who had reportedly been sitting on the lap of a rear seat passenger when the accident happened. All were injured and believed hospitalized after the crash.

LEADING THE HEMET HEADLINES:

Massive blaze, multiple explosions, rock Hemet as apt. car port destroyed in suspicious fire

HEMET: Three hospitalized after four-vehicle collision involving tandem-trailer big-rig

HEMET: Suspect eludes capture after dangerous pursuit of stolen box truck

CHP, Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire, and other emergency first responders, were dispatched to the scene around 5:30 this morning, after receiving reports of the rollover accident along a hairpin curve just north of Rawlings Road.

The road has been the site of numerous other accidents, many of which involved vehicles that plummeted off the roadway at the sharp, left-hand curve.

When officials arrived they found a small, white BMW about 100 feet down a ravine. The vehicle was upside down and numerous victims were inside and around the overturned and wrecked vehicle.

Rescuers immediately made their way to the victims and firefighters and paramedics began evaluating and treating the victims’ injuries.

A CHP Sgt. later told a witness at the scene that the people from inside the wrecked vehicle were from Fontana and had been drinking alcohol outside the closed gates of the park overnight and were headed home when the DUI-related accident happened.

One area resident, Mark Moya, who took photographs of the accident scene later explained, he lives toward the bottom of the steep, narrow, and winding roadway, later discussed the dangerous road and the frequent accidents that happen there.

“I see these young kids racing up and down the hill every afternoon,” Moya explained.

Lisa Marie Henderson, who also lives along the treacherous road echoed Moya’s sentiments writing in an online comment about the crash, “This is an every weekend thing up here.”

“It’s so sad when I try to come home from a long day of work,” Henderson continued. “I can’t even get to my house with all their cars parked on the street. It’s really bad.”

CHP’s investigation is ongoing and officials have not yet released any information regarding the crash.

As of this report, a request for details had not yet been responded to.

 

Contact the writer: [email protected]

Trevor Montgomery, 46, recently moved to Shasta County from Riverside County and runs Riverside County News Source and Shasta County News Source. Additionally, he writes for several other news organizations, including Riverside County based newspapers, Valley News, The Valley Chronicle and Anza Valley Outlook, as well as Bonsall/Fallbrook Village News in San Diego County and The Mountain Echo in Shasta County.

Trevor spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg, breaking his back and suffering both spinal cord and brain injuries in an off-duty accident. (Click here to see segment of Discovery Channel documentary of Trevor’s accident.)

During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations, including Robert Presley Detention Center, Southwest Station in Temecula, Hemet/Valle Vista Station, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center and Lake Elsinore Station, along with other locations.