Man killed in freeway jump

A South Carolina man leaped to his death from a freeway overpass in San Clemente early Wednesday and fell through the windshield of a diesel truck, but the big rig’s driver was not injured, authorities said.

The 25-year-old man, whose identity has not been released, jumped onto the southbound lanes of Interstate 5 at Camino de Estrella shortly after 3 a.m., falling through the windshield on the passenger side of the truck. The driver managed to pull to the side of the freeway safely, said Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino.

The driver was “badly shaken” but was uninjured, Amormino said. If the man had landed on the driver’s side, “it certainly would have caused another collision and perhaps another fatality,” Amormino said.

An investigation by the California Highway Patrol and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department delayed traffic on the freeway for a couple of hours. Authorities did not release the name of the man who jumped because they had not yet notified his family, Amormino said.

-- Stuart Pfeifer