Coroner identifies woman killed in Huntington Beach motorcycle crash

A woman killed when a motorcycle and another vehicle collided on Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach over the weekend was a resident of that city, authorities said Monday.

Meghan Wautlet was 22 years old, according to the Orange County coroner’s office.

The crash occurred at 8:17 p.m. Saturday on PCH between Warner Avenue and the entrance to Bolsa Chica State Beach, Huntington Beach police Lt. Thoby Archer told City News Service. The highway was closed in both directions near the scene of the accident while police conducted their investigation.

Wautlet was pronounced dead at the scene, he said.

Preliminary investigation shows Wautlet was a passenger on a 2019 Harley Davidson Street Bob driven by 21-year-old Huntington Beach resident John Murray III when it collided with a 2015 Mazda CX-5, according to a news release issued Monday by the Huntington Beach Police Department.

Murray, who sustained “significant injuries” in the accident, was transported to a hospital where he remained Monday, according to the release.

Investigators believe the motorcycle was traveling southbound on PCH “at a high rate of speed,” police officials said, and struck the Mazda as it was completing a legal U-turn from the northbound side of PCH to the southbound lanes.

The Mazda’s driver, a 41-year-old woman from Beaumont, stayed at the scene of the accident and cooperated with the police.

Neither drugs nor alcohol appeared to be factors in the crash, according to police.

Members of the public who may have information about the accident are asked to call HBPD Traffic Investigator D. Demetre at (714) 536-5670, or Investigator V. Rattanchandani at (714) 536-5231.

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