Local News in Brief : County : Deputy Dies in Freeway Crash on Way Home
An Orange County sheriff’s deputy was killed on his way home from work Friday morning when he crashed on the Riverside Freeway near Corona, authorities said.
Larry Hudgins, 28, was traveling east on the freeway at 55 m.p.h. when he apparently fell asleep at the wheel, California Highway Patrol Officer John Anderson said.
Hudgins’ 1988 Mazda RX-7 drifted off the road and he was ejected from the car when it rolled over several times, he said.
“He wasn’t wearing a seat belt,” Anderson said. “The officer who investigated the accident said, in his way of thinking, that had he been belted in, he probably wouldn’t have died.”
Hudgins had left work at 7 a.m. and was on his way home to Riverside when the accident occurred at 7:35 a.m., Anderson said. No other cars were involved.
Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said Hudgins worked in the intake-release center of the Orange County Jail and had been a sheriff’s deputy for 3 years.
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