Last Updated on August 11, 2019 by CCAR Staff
A 67-year-old Lake Elsinore man was killed Sunday in an early morning collision in Lakeland Village, and the California Highway Patrol said the driver of the car that struck his vehicle has been arrested.
Barry Blunt was identified Monday afternoon as the victim in the crash by the Riverside County Coroner’s Office.
Jose Mateo Montejo, 22, of Lake Elsinore was in custody Monday, arrested on felony suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated plus misdemeanor driving without a license that was suspended because of drunken driving, jail records show
He was being held in lieu of posting bond on $75,000 bail at the Cois M. Byrd Detention Center in French Valley.
The crash occurred at 2:31 a.m. at the intersection of Grand Avenue just south of Vail Street in the unincorporated community of Lakeland Village, near the southeast shore of the lake, a CHP report on the collision said.
The CHP said Montejo was heading north on Grand Avenue in his 2006 Buick Rendezvous SUV, just south of Vail Street, with Blunt headed in the opposite direction on Grand.
The suspect allegedly “allowed his vehicle to drift across double yellow lines and into the the victim’s vehicle,” CHP Officer Mike Lassig said.
Blunt was driving a 1972 Chevy Chevelle. Montejo’s SUV allegedly crashed into the front of the Chevelle, killing Blunt.
Both vehicles only had the drivers aboard, according to a CHP report on the accident. Montejo was treated for moderate injuries at Inland Valley Medical Center.
“Every DUI is 100 percent avoidable,” Lassig said. “It’s not worth the risk.”
The collision remains under investigation by the CHP’s Temecula office.
Staff writer Eric Licas contributed to this story.
