Last Updated on January 8, 2023 by CCAR Staff
A Claremont man was arrested after the CHP says he drunkenly crashed his car in a construction area on I-15 in Corona on Friday, killing a woman and a boy and injuring a second child who were all passengers in his car.
The deceased were identified Monday as Ashley Austin, 27, and Christopher Austin, 6, both from Canyon Lake.
Their relationship to the driver, 58-year-old Michael Edward Mason, was not disclosed.
Mason was driving north, going about 60 mph, in a 2002 GMC Sierra, according to a California Highway Patrol news release. At 9:22 p.m., inside a construction area just north of Magnolia Avenue, the vehicle veered left into the center divider.
The truck’s left tires ran into a ditch and the truck hit a set of steel beams before running into nearby stacks of lumber. The vehicle flipped and came to rest on its roof, the release said.
Ashley and Christopher Austin — initially identified by the CHP as 5 years old — were both dead when authorities arrived. A 9-year-old girl in the backseat, whose identity was not released, was taken to Riverside County Regional Medical Center with minor injuries.
Mason was found to be under the influence of alcohol, the CHP said. Jail records show he was arrested at Riverside Community Hospital on suspicion of murder, vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence of alcohol and willfully harming a child.
He was taken to the Robert Presley Detention Center, where he remained Monday. Jail records say he was denied bail. Charges have not been filed.
