Crime & Safety

Elderly Lemon Grove Driver Takes Wild Ride in Rancho San Diego

The woman, 78, hit two vehicles, which hit three other cars. Three people suffered minor injuries, including the driver.

Originally posted at 4:40 p.m. Thursday July 18.

A six-car collision clogged a Rancho San Diego intersection at midday Thursday, after an elderly Lemon Grove driver who mistook her gas pedal for her brake took a wild ride that ended up near a shopping center parking lot.

The silver Dodge Caravan van driven by the 78-year-old female was in the eastbound lanes of Jamacha Road at Cuyamaca College Drive West when she lost control and hit two other cars at about 11 a.m., according to the San Miguel Fire District.

Those cars then hit three others, according to Officer Kevin Pearlstein of the California Highway Patrol.

“It was kind of like a little chain reaction,” he said.

The driver was stuck against one of the damaged car bumpers, but kept applying the gas, according to Pearlstein, burning rubber until the can shot free of the crush.

The van then veered to the right, jumped a sidewalk, shot over an embankment, ran over a tree, and flew through a gas station parking lot, somehow avoiding hitting any gas pumps or other cars. The van was stopped by a telephone pole near the north entry of the Rancho San Diego Town Centre.

The vehicle caught fire once it hit the pole, and rescuers from Cal Fire who were just passing by stopped to offer aid. They pulled the elderly victim from the wreck.

“She had no idea what had happened,” Pearlstein said. 

Three people, including the elderly woman. were taken to local hospitals with non-life threatening injuries, according to the CHP. Two lanes were closed for about 90 minutes and traffic, though slow, was moving.

The elderly driver will have to undergo testing by the Department of Motor Vehicles to see if she remains fit to drive, Pearlstein said. If she fails, her license will be suspended, he said.


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