A Freak Accident Kills Biker
A motorcyclist was killed Monday when a boat being towed on the Costa Mesa Freeway broke loose and struck him, officials said.
Authorities are seeking the truck driver, who fled the scene.
Mark Stephen Burris, 34, of Huntington Beach was pronounced dead at the scene about 8:40 a.m. in Tustin just south of the Santa Ana Freeway.
The boat first hit a car driven by a 31-year-old Irvine woman, then struck the motorcyclist. The woman was not injured.
“The U-Haul driver got out, went back and looked,” said Officer Katrina Lundgren, a spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol. “He was very hysterical, screaming and crying. Then he reentered the U-Haul truck and left the scene,” abandoning the boat and its trailer.
Lundgren said witnesses described the U-Haul driver as dark-skinned, in his mid-30s with a goatee.
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