A 71-year-old Los Angeles man was killed Tuesday in an SUV rollover crash on Interstate 5 near the San Onofre nuclear power plant that also injured his wife and their son, who was behind the wheel, authorities said.
The crash was reported shortly after 5:50 a.m. on northbound I-5, north of the California Highway Patrol San Onofre Inspection Facility, CHP Officer Jim Bettencourt said.
The victim's son, a 43-year-old Los Angeles resident, was driving a 2002 Ford Explorer that, for unknown reasons, crashed and overturned several times, CHP Officer Mark Latulippe said. The driver's father, whose name was not immediately released, was ejected from the SUV and died at the scene before the arrival of a medical helicopter that had been requested to airlift him to a hospital, Latulippe said.
The driver and his 70-year-old mother, also of Los Angeles, both suffered moderate injuries, Latulippe said. She was airlifted to Scripps La Jolla Hospital and her son was taken by ambulance to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, he said.
Intoxication was not believed to have been a factor in the crash, Latulippe said.
All lanes were shut down around 6:35 a.m. to allow the helicopter to land on the highway, Bettencourt said. Officers then ran a traffic break until all lanes were reopened by 8:10 a.m.
