Woman Hit and Killed on Freeway

A 20-year-old Garden Grove woman was killed Monday morning when she attempted to dash across the Riverside Freeway at Imperial Highway, making her the second person to die in three days while crossing a freeway in Orange County, authorities said.

The accident forced the closing of three of the four eastbound freeway lanes and tied up traffic for about 3 1/2 hours, the California Highway Patrol said.

The victim, whose name was withheld pending notification of relatives, was attempting to cross the freeway about 10:50 a.m. when she was struck by a 1987 pickup truck driven by Mark Polentz, 35, of Fullerton, CHP Officer Bill Wedderburn said.

The victim’s car had broken down along the center divider and she had just dashed successfully across the freeway lanes to use a call box at the roadway edge. An officer had been sent to assist her and she had been warned not to try to return to her car, Wedderburn said.

“For whatever reason she tried to run back across the eastbound lanes where she was struck,” Wedderburn said.

In a similar accident late Saturday night, a Los Angeles man was killed trying to cross Interstate 5 near the Avery Parkway off-ramp in Mission Viejo. After being stopped by CHP officers for allegedly driving erratically, Hector Munos, 30, attempted to flee and was hit by two cars in the southbound lanes, officials said.

Munos and an unidentified passenger made it across the northbound lanes, climbed a center divider and then tried to run across the southbound lanes with two officers in pursuit. Munos was hit and killed immediately. The unidentified man escaped, officials said.