Driver Dies in Hot Rod Crash in Lakeside

A hot rod crashed along State Route 67 Sunday, driving off the shoulder onto a frontage road and killing the driver.

California Highway Patrol officers responded to the southbound on-ramp at Woodside Avenue just before 9 p.m.

Officials say for an unknown reason the 1932 Ford Roaster drove off the highway, down an embankment and through a chain-linked fence and struck a wooden post. The hot rod landed on North Woodside Avenue.

The driver, who officials described as a 48-year-old El Cajon man, was ejected from the vehicle when it rolled. CHP officers say the vehicle was not equipped with seat belts.

There has been no word on what caused the crash.

NBC 7 has learned the driver was Mike Gharring.

Gharring was described by one of his friends in the hot rod community as being a jokester, someone with a big personality.

"I want him to be remembered as a guy who smiled all the time," said friend Sheri Hendrickson. "He was fun; he had a lot of energy; he was just a happy person, you know. Words are hard to find. I'm still in shock, I still can't believe that this happened."

He worked at his family business, overseeing operations at Southland Envelope in Lakeside. A spokesperson for the company said its roughly 120 employees were shocked by the news.

"I called up his cellphone and it rang and rang and rang and rang and rang, and he didn't answer, and his voice mail wasn't set up," said Hendrickson. "So I called Southland Envelope and talked to his family and they instantly started crying."

His Facebook page suggests he was a member of the El Cajon Valley High School Class of 1985.

No funeral arrangements have been made.

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