A motorist suspected of running a red light at a French Valley intersection while under the influence and slamming into a car, killing a Winchester woman and seriously injuring her passenger, was being held without bail Monday.
Elvis Eugene Tate, 59, was arrested after the wreck that killed 27-year-old Ashley Alcarez about 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
According to the California Highway Patrol, Tate was at the wheel of a 2003 Mitsubishi Galant going north on Winchester Road at roughly 50 mph when he failed to stop for a red light at Benton Road.
Officer Mike Lassig said that as the suspect approached Benton, the victim initiated a left turn in her 2016 Honda Civic from the westbound lane to go south on Winchester. She was turning on a green light, Lassig said.
“(Tate) failed to stop for the red traffic signal … and the front of his vehicle collided with the (driver’s side) door of the victim’s vehicle, killing her instantly and inflicting major injuries on her passenger,” the officer said. “After the initial collision, the vehicles continued out of control and struck two additional vehicles that were stopped in the southbound lanes of Winchester.”
Riverside County Fire Department paramedics pronounced Alcarez dead at the scene.
Her front-seat passenger, 28-year-old Anthony Lewis of Winchester, was taken to Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar.
According to Lassig, the occupants of the two stopped vehicles that were struck were tended at the scene by paramedics but declined to be taken to a hospital for further examination.
Tate was taken to Inland Valley Medical Center for treatment of moderate injuries, after which he was booked into the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta on suspicion of second-degree murder and DUI resulting in great bodily injury.
He has no prior documented felony convictions in Riverside County.