A 23-year-old motorist was killed Monday when he lost control of his car while talking on his mobile phone and plunged down an embankment alongside Interstate 15 near Temecula, slamming into a boulder.
Matthew Salazar of Hemet was fatally injured shortly after midnight on southbound I-15, just south of the Temecula city limits, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Officer Mike Lassig said Salazar was traveling at an unconfirmed speed in his Honda Civic and made “an unsafe turning movement, causing the Honda to travel off the roadway.”
“The Civic descended down a steep embankment, ultimately crashing into a large rock, causing major damage to the Honda,” Lassig said.
He said the party to whom the victim was speaking via cell at the time of the crash immediately called 911 when the motorist’s phone dropped out, and an “Apple notification that the driver was involved in a crash” was received by the caller.
CHP officers and Riverside County Fire Department paramedics reached the location a short time later, and the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
“The CHP would like to remind the motoring public to … limit cell phone conversations, as they can be a distraction while driving,” Lassig said.