Last Updated on April 22, 2019 by CCAR Staff
A Gardena woman headed for the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio died after she was thrown from the Jeep she was driving when it overturned as she was using her cell phone, the California Highway Patrol said Monday.
Vanessa Suarez, 21, was not wearing her seat belt. She died Friday evening after the crash on the eastbound 60 Freeway, west of Jack Rabbit Trail and west of Beaumont, the CHP said.
The crash took place in a hilly area with a curving roadway locally known as the Badlands.
Suarez died on her birthday, CHP Officer Darren Meyer said in a news release. She was not wearing her seat belt “against the passenger’s advice.”
The passenger, a 20-year-old woman from Torrance, was wearing her seat belt and climbed out of the wreckage with minor injuries, Meyer wrote. The driver and passenger in the Jeep were the only occupants, and no other cars were involved.
Suarez lost control of the silver 2015 Jeep Patriot at 7:25 p.m. when she began manipulating her cell phone and became distracted, Meyer said. The Jeep struck the center median wall and began to overturn, and she was thrown out of the vehicle and onto the roadway.
She was taken to the Riverside University Health System Medical Center in Moreno Valley, where she died about one hour after the accident.
Meyer said alcohol, drugs and speeding have been ruled out as contributing factors in the crash.
