Wild video shows truck launching off overpass in Rialto before crashing onto 210 Freeway
Wild dashcam video footage shows the dramatic moments that a pickup truck launches off an overpass in Rialto before going airborne and crashing onto the 210 Freeway below on Friday night.
It happened at around 6:30 p.m. near the Ayala Drive exit, according to Vanessa Alveal, who witnessed the intense moments on her way home from work.
"Passing by the bridge, I just saw the truck literally flying from the bridge and I hit the brake, because I was coming, like, 60 miles per hour," Alveal recalled. "I just didn't know if it was a car or an airplane, because I just saw this white thing just flew in front of me."
The dashcam video showed the white pickup truck as it went airborne, clearing several lanes before landing on an SUV on the eastbound side of the freeway below. The truck then rolled, eventually coming to a stop in westbound lanes.
"It was very scary, because it was something I'd never experienced before," Alveal said. "I mean, you see it on movies, not in real life like that."
She was directly behind the SUV that the truck landed on top of, Alveal recalled, saying she was quick enough to slam her brakes before crashing into the chaotic scene herself. After getting out of her car, Alveal says her instincts took over and she rushed to the pickup truck, which wound up on its roof near the center divider of the freeway.
"I was able to get one of the guys around there. I don't even know who he was. They helped me to kind of climb on top of the truck, the door, to kind of see, because we couldn't see who was inside," she said. "So, we wanted to see if everybody, if anybody was badly injured. We wanted to see if we could help out anybody."
Alveal says that the driver was bleeding but conscious after the crash. He and another person inside the SUV were taken to hospitals by ambulance, she said.
California Highway Patrol officers shared a news release on Monday that provided details of the moments leading up to the crash. They said that the driver of the Ford F-150 that went airborne was driving northbound on Linden Avenue toward Renaissance Parkway when he veered to the right and drove onto the northeast corner of the intersection. He drove through a chainlink fence and off the elevated side of the 210 Freeway, which launched him through the air. The truck eventually landed on the road and broadsided a GMC Arcadia, which overturned during the impact.
Police also said that two other cars were damaged by flying debris from the crash, but they were not struck by the two cars involved.
"I'm, like, traumatized," Alveal said. "Like, I drove today and I was like, I'm still kind of scared to, I don't want to be driving much, and even on the freeway. ... I'm scared right now."
On Monday, California Highway Patrol officers told CBS Los Angeles that the truck's driver, Edgar Gonzalez, a 36-year-old from Compton, and the occupant of the SUV it crashed into, Jefferey Elhami, a 51-year-old person from Glendora, were both in stable condition. They said that neither drugs nor alcohol appeared to be factors in the incident.
Anyone who knows more was asked to contact CHP investigators at (909) 835-9965.
