Driver Killed When Jeep Falls Off Bridge
A Tustin man was killed and his passenger injured Saturday morning when their Jeep struck a bridge railing, fell 40 feet from a freeway and burst into flames, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.
The driver, Leon Enrique Sanchez, 19, was traveling north at about 70 m.p.h. on the Santa Ana Freeway. As he approached the Sand Canyon exit about 2 a.m., the Jeep struck the right-hand bridge railing where the freeway crosses over some railroad tracks, the spokesman said.
The passenger, William Joseph Luis Hernandez, 16, of Santa Ana was thrown onto the freeway and received minor injuries.
The Jeep careened across three lanes and tumbled over the left railing through a gap that separates the bridge from another structure carrying the freeway’s southbound lanes.
Sanchez was thrown from the vehicle as it plummeted off the bridge. The Jeep landed upside down near the railroad tracks and burst into flames. Neither man was wearing a seat belt, the spokesman said.
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