A 31-year-old father died Tuesday in a rollover crash at an on-ramp to State Route 52 in Santee.
California Highway Patrol officers say a man was driving a GMC pickup west on SR-52 near State Route 125 just before 5 a.m. when the truck drifted to the left and into the center median. The driver then overcorrected and veered to the right across all lanes of traffic, authorities said.
The pickup truck struck a small ditch between westbound SR-52 and the Mission Gorge Road on-ramp and overturned before coming to a halt.
There were three people inside the car. One person, a rear passenger, died. That passenger was pinned inside the vehicle. CHP officers say it’s possible the victim, an El Cajon man who leaves behind a family, was not wearing a seatbelt.
The male driver and another passenger were taken to Sharp Memorial Hospital with what were described by CHP as moderate injuries.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office (ME) has now identified the victim as Francisco Javier Perez. The ME says Perez lived in the East County with his significant other and children.
