A 25-year-old Lake Elsinore man was killed early Sunday when a pickup traveling the wrong way on the westbound 91 Freeway slammed head-on into a big rig near Serfas Club Drive in Corona. The collision happened before sunrise and shut down the westbound lanes for hours while emergency crews worked the scene. Corona Fire Department personnel pronounced the pickup driver dead at the scene.
According to a news release from the California Highway Patrol, the crash occurred around 5:30 a.m. when a black Ford F-150 entered the freeway from an off-ramp and began traveling east in the westbound lanes before striking a white Volvo tractor-trailer as it passed Serfas Club Drive, CBS Los Angeles reported. Debris scattered into adjacent lanes and hit a Mercedes-Benz whose driver was not injured. As 911 calls poured in from other motorists, CHP units were already trying to track down the wrong-way vehicle.
The Riverside County coroner’s office identified the victim as 25-year-old Abel Quintero of Lake Elsinore and listed the injury time as about 5:40 a.m. and the time of death as about 5:55 a.m., according to a coroner press release from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office. The release places the collision on westbound SR-91 roughly 900 to 1,000 feet west of Maple Street and notes that the California Highway Patrol is leading the investigation…