Woman Killed in 100 m.p.h. Freeway Chase

A woman believed to be about 60 years old, fleeing from a U-turn ticket, led deputies on a 100 m.p.h. chase Monday until her car sailed off a 30-foot embankment on the Antelope Valley Freeway, killing her.

The woman was thrown from her 1989 Ford Thunderbird as it flipped several times and hit three northbound cars before crumpling in a heap, the California Highway Patrol and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said.

“You couldn’t tell what kind of car this is,” Sheriff’s Lt. Ralph Martin said from the scene of the accident. “It’s just completely mangled.”

The chase began about 3:45 p.m. when Sheriff’s Deputy John Rush saw the woman make an illegal U-turn on Avenue K near 12th Street West in Lancaster, Martin said. Rush pulled in behind the woman and turned on his red lights to pull her over, Martin said.

Instead, “she punched it and went through the red light and took off on him,” Martin said. As the woman drove, she ran a second red light and made another illegal U-turn, Martin said.

“He originally thought he had a drunk driver, or someone driving erratically,” Martin said.

However, he said it could not be established whether she was under the influence of alcohol until toxicology tests were conducted during an autopsy.

The woman headed onto the Antelope Valley Freeway going south, and Deputy Rush was joined by another patrol car and a sheriff’s helicopter that tracked the woman from overhead, Martin said.

Martin asked the CHP, well-versed in freeway chases, to take over about 10 minutes into the 12-minute pursuit.

At one point, the woman drove onto the dirt divider between the north and southbound lanes to pass slower cars, CHP Officer Rick Chisham said. She spun out, but was able to re-enter traffic, Chisham said.

About three miles later, near Santiago Road, she drove onto the center divider again. This time the car tumbled over the side and was briefly airborne, ejecting the woman, whose body landed in the right-hand lane of northbound traffic, Chisham said. The southbound lanes of the freeway are about 30 feet higher than the northbound, Chisham said.

Christine Loyd, 31, of Palmdale was driving north in the left lane when she saw the woman’s car and swerved to avoid it. The T-bird clipped the right front of Loyd’s car, Chisham said, and then struck a van and another car.

The vehicles suffered only minor damage and none of the drivers or their passengers were injured, Chisham said.

A vast number of papers, books, bills and pictures that the woman was carrying in her car were scattered across the freeway, Martin said. It was unknown why she was carrying so many belongings in her car, he said. Caltrans workers were called to pick up the debris.

Meanwhile, the highway’s two northbound lanes were closed for about an hour and traffic was rerouted onto the Sierra Highway. Hours later, traffic on the freeway remained backed up for five miles while traffic on Sierra Highway was backed up four miles.