EL CAJON, Calif. (CNS) - A motorist traveling the wrong way on Interstate 8 in El Cajon over the weekend got into a crash that killed him and severely injured a toddler riding in another vehicle, authorities said.
The unidentified driver was heading east on the westbound side of the freeway near El Cajon Valley High School when the 2017 Chevrolet Silverado he was driving veered to the right off the roadway and struck a concrete guardrail wall shortly after 7:30 p.m. Sunday, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The pickup truck then traversed a center median and hit another barrier, this one on the west side of Second Street, CHP public-affairs Officer Jared Grieshaber said. The impact caused chunks of broken-off concrete to strike several vehicles traveling on the city street, injuring a 17-month-old child seated in one of them.
The pickup, meanwhile, crashed onto a sidewalk on the east side of Second Street, where it came to rest alongside a wall and became engulfed in flames, Grieshaber said. Despite bystanders' efforts to rescue him, the driver, described only as male, died inside the burning truck.
Paramedics took the injured child to Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego for treatment of serious but apparently non-life-threatening injuries, the spokesman said.
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