2nd Person in Month Struck, Killed in Freeway Traffic : Burbank: Victim who dropped from overpass on Golden State was hit by several vehicles that failed to stop.

Many motorists struck a person who dropped from an overpass on the Golden State Freeway in Burbank on Monday, battering the body into an unrecognizable state, but none of those who hit the victim stopped, authorities said.

It was the second such incident on the Golden State Freeway in a month.

Damage to the body was so extensive that investigators could not initially be sure if the dead person was a man or woman, the California Highway Patrol and Burbank police reported. It was also unclear whether the 12:55 a.m. death in the southbound lanes below the Olive Avenue overpass was a suicide.

“There was some evidence at the scene that it was probably a suicide but it is still under investigation,” CHP Officer Rich Obregon said.

Three lanes of the freeway were closed for 2 1/2 hours after the incident as the coroner’s office removed the victim’s remains.

On Oct. 31, an El Cajon man was struck on the Golden State Freeway just north of Santa Clarita and then hit by several other vehicles whose drivers did not stop. As in Monday’s incident, it was dark and authorities said some motorists might not have known they had struck a person and that others might have driven off because they feared they were responsible for the person’s death.

CHP Officer Frank Lewis said such occurrences are not unusual.

“Sometimes you have people trying to get away” because they think they are responsible, Lewis said. “Some may not realize they have hit someone. They might think it is a dog or something.”

Although authorities said it was not believed that any motorist was at fault for hitting the person killed Monday--and under the law, it is not illegal to hit a body that is already dead--it is a crime to knowingly leave the scene of an accident. Police are not searching for the motorists, authorities said.

In Monday’s incident, Burbank police said a lone motorist pulled to the side of the freeway at 12:55 a.m. and used an emergency phone to report he had just seen a person lying in one of the freeway lanes and apparently trying to get up on hands and knees. The operator asked if the person was still there.

“When he looked back he saw body parts scattered along the freeway,” Police Sgt. Don Goldberg said.

Based on information from that motorist, investigators believe a caravan of trucks initially hit the person in the freeway and the body was struck by other motorists afterward.

“After a while they probably didn’t know what they were hitting,” Obregon said.

The dead person’s identity will have to be established by fingerprints, but a check of the prints on a statewide law enforcement computer on Monday found no matches, Goldberg said.

Because the fatality occurred immediately below an overpass, investigators theorized the person had committed suicide by jumping from the overpass into traffic. Goldberg, however, said the victim dropped on the south side of the overpass, facing away from oncoming traffic. Suicides usually jump facing into the traffic, he said.

“We don’t have a witness to what happened,” Goldberg said. “It appears that the person either jumped, fell or was pushed off the overpass.”