Last Updated on June 2, 2019 by CCAR Staff
Investigators suspect alcohol played a role in a head-on crash along a winding two-lane road in Temecula that left a Murrieta teen dead and six other people injured on Saturday, June 1. One driver was arrested.
The collision happened at about 6:20 p.m. on Rancho California Road, just east of Via Santa Rosa, said Tawny Cabral, spokeswoman with Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department. A 2015 BMW 328i was traveling west and going around a sharp corner when it veered into eastbound lanes and the path of a 2005 Toyota Corolla, California Highway Patrol officials said in a Sunday news release.
The head-on collision caused the Toyota to spin out, CHP officials said. A 15-year old girl from Murrieta who was sitting in the front passenger seat suffered traumatic blunt force injuries and died at the scene. Her name was not immediately released. The Corolla’s driver and one other passenger, both 18-year old men from Murrieta, were seriously hurt.
Meanwhile, the BMW traveled off of the road and 150 feet down an embankment, where it came to rest on its roof, said the release. The vehicle’s driver and three passengers were able to get themselves out of the overturned sedan, but sustained moderate to major injuries.
The driver of the BMW, later identified as Jose A. Zazueta, 19, of Fallbrook, was allegedly speeding and driving recklessly prior to the crash, said the CHP release. Investigators found evidence suggesting that he had been under the influence of alcohol during the collision.
Zazueta was arrested on suspicion of felony DUI and felony vehicular manslaughter, CHP officials said. His formal booking at the Southwest Detention Facility in Murrieta was pending his release from Inland Valley Hospital, where the other passengers involved in the crash were also recovering as of Sunday afternoon.
