No Evidence of Foul Play Uncovered in Fatal Crash
Investigators have found no evidence of foul play in connection with an armored car that plunged from the Antelope Valley Freeway, killing two, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said Wednesday.
Rather, investigators are trying to determine whether the driver of the vehicle, 56-year-old Kenneth Leroy Diekmann of Garden Grove, may have been driving too fast, suffered a heart attack or fell asleep at the wheel, CHP spokesman Doug Sweeney said.
Diekmann and his passenger, 29-year-old Todd Andrew West of Las Vegas, were killed upon impact when the armored car flew from the roadway and landed on a hillside about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Diekmann was southbound at about 70 to 75 mph south of Escondido Canyon Road when he failed to negotiate a curve in the road, Sweeney said.
Sweeney said that the armored car was carrying about $200,000 in cash at the time of the crash and that all of the money has been accounted for.
He said a witness told investigators that there were no vehicles around the armored car just before the crash.
“It’s not as if someone was trying to run him off the road,” Sweeney said.
The crash remains under investigation.
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