Escondido
An off-duty El Cajon police officer was killed when the car in which he was a passenger clipped a truck on Interstate 15, the California Highway Patrol reported.
The officer, David Frederick Turner, 39, of La Mesa, was a passenger in a car driven by Philip Jackson, 29, of San Diego, who was driving south on I-15 a mile north of Deer Springs Road north of Escondido, CHP dispatcher Elayne Schuller said.
Jackson was driving about 60 m.p.h. about 1:35 a.m. Sunday when he found himself overtaking a flatbed truck going about 30 m.p.h. in the same lane, Schuller said.
As Jackson swerved into the lane to his left, the front right of his vehicle struck the left rear of the flatbed, and Turner suffered massive head injuries, dying instantly, the San Diego County medical examiner’s office said.
The driver of the truck, Graciano Acosta, 32, of Baja California, was not injured.
Turner was a patrol officer with the El Cajon Police Department for six years, the department said.
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