Driver Killed in Crash on Skyline Drive

A Riverside woman was killed when she lost control of her pickup truck and flipped into an eight-foot-deep dry wash beside Skyline Drive, but her passenger escaped with only cuts and scrapes, police said Thursday.

Roxanna Ehinger, 22, was pronounced dead at the scene Wednesday by a Riverside County deputy coroner. She suffered major head injuries, a Highway Patrol spokesman said.

Her passenger in the truck, Frank Pettingill, 19, of Riverside, suffered only cuts and scrapes to his knees, elbow and forehead. He climbed out of the overturned truck, tried unsuccessfully to free Ehinger, then ran to a nearby house to call for help.

Lost Control, Flipped

The passenger told investigators that Ehinger was driving too fast for the rocky, dirt road, began to lose control of the fish-tailing pickup, and flipped over to the left side of the road, said Officer John Anderson, spokesman for the California Highway Patrol in Riverside.

Neither Ehinger nor Pettingill was wearing a seat belt, Anderson said.

Skyline Drive, a scenic dirt road that winds through the northern Santa Ana Mountains from Corona to the Orange County line, will be closed to public use this fall, when the Riverside County Road Department will install heavy gates at each end.

The county’s Board of Supervisors, following the recommendation of Road Commissioner LeRoy D. Smoot, ordered the road closed because its steep climbs, tight turns and narrow, rutted roadway pose a danger to drivers and a potential liability problem for the county.