Driver Killed When Car Hits Parked Van

An Iowa motorist was killed early Thursday when her car drifted into a center divider and slammed into a paramedic van that was parked on the San Diego Freeway.

Tanya Irlmeier, 19, of Audubon, Iowa, was driving south at 1:30 a.m. near the Sand Canyon Avenue off-ramp when the accident occurred, California Highway Patrol Officer Keith Thornhill said.

For an undetermined reason, she veered her Toyota Cressida into the emergency lane, where an Orange County Fire Department paramedic van was parked, Thornhill said.

The paramedics had parked the van in the lane to retrieve a piece of equipment left after an earlier minor traffic collision, Thornhill said. Two members of the paramedic crew were standing along the freeway when Irlmeier rear-ended the van, but neither was injured.

She was killed instantly.