SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A 12-year-old girl was among three people killed Thursday afternoon in a fiery wrong-way crash on Interstate 805 in the University City area.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner said Friday the girl was a passenger in a Hyundai SUV heading northbound on I-805 when it was struck by a 2014 McLaren sports car speeding southbound on a northbound lane.
The Hyundai’s 43-year-old female driver and the 18-year-old man driving the McLaren also died in the collision.
RELATED: 3 dead in crash on I-805 in University City
California Highway Patrol officials said the McLaren was traveling south in the northbound I-805 HOV lane at a high rate of speed when it collided head-on with the northbound Hyundai near La Jolla Village Drive shortly after 4:30 p.m.
The impact led to a fire that engulfed the SUV, killing the two occupants, the medical examiner reported.
The medical examiner said the McLaren’s driver suffered blunt force trauma and was declared dead at the scene.
According to the CHP, the fiery wreck caused a chain reaction of collisions that involved at least five other vehicles. Another person suffered a serious injury as a result and was taken to the hospital.
All lanes on northbound Interstate 805 at La Jolla Village Drive were shut down for about 10 hours due to the investigation and clean-up effort. All lanes were reopened at around 2:30 a.m. Friday, the CHP said.
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The crash remains under investigation, with authorities looking into what led the McLaren’s driver to head southbound on the northbound I-805 HOV lane.
10News learned authorities are looking into whether the wrong-way driver was involved in an incident at a nearby elementary school moments before the I-805 crash.
Several students at Ashley Falls Elementary School in Carmel Valley said the driver of a sports car rammed a gate and tried to drive onto a soccer field before peeling out of the parking lot and speeding away.
CHP investigators and San Diego police have not confirmed if the school incident and freeway crash are linked.
