2 Killed After Car Plunges Off Freeway

Two men were killed Friday when their speeding Corvette crashed through a concrete barrier on an elevated section of the Golden State Freeway and plummeted 100 feet to a field below, the California Highway Patrol reported.

“The car shot off of there like a rocket,” CHP Officer Dave Grajeda said.

The accident occurred at 2:40 a.m. on the curving transition road from the northbound Golden State Freeway to the eastbound Simi Valley Freeway.

“The car flew out 90 feet and then down 100,” Grajeda said. “Both occupants weren’t wearing seat belts and were ejected. The passenger landed on top of the driver and the car landed on top of them.”

The 1981 Corvette was driven by a 37-year-old Los Angeles man whose name was not released pending notification of his family.

The driver died shortly after the accident at Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills.

The passenger, a 19-year-old Pacoima man, died at the scene.

Grajeda said there were no witnesses to the accident but the investigation showed that the car was going faster than 100 m.p.h. when the driver attempted to take the right-hand curve onto the Simi Valley Freeway.

“He lost control and crashed through the barrier,” Grajeda said.

Grajeda said there were no indications that the accident was a suicide.

He said investigators will have to await autopsy results to determine if the driver had been drinking.

“Right now, we don’t know the cause, other than speed,” he said.