A 19-year-old Corona man was killed Tuesday in a fiery crash on the Riverside (91) Freeway stemming from an alleged race involving the victim and a parolee, who was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and drunken driving, the highway patrol reported.
Marcos Calderon, 25, of Riverside was taken into custody immediately after the 12:45 a.m. wreck on the eastbound 91 near Buchanan Street. Along with the DUI and manslaughter allegations, Calderon was booked into the Robert Presley Jail on suspicion of engaging in an illegal speed contest and parole violations.
The California Highway Patrol alleges that Calderon and the victim, whose name was not immediately released, accelerated to speeds in excess of 100 mph while trying to outmaneuver one another in eastbound lanes.
Calderon was driving a Nissan Altima, and the victim was at the wheel of a BMW 550 sedan, CHP Officer Juan Quintero said.
When the two motorists encountered slower traffic on the west end of Riverside, they “lost control of their respective vehicles and veered off of the freeway in a southerly direction,” he said.
Calderon’s car stopped in a parking lot adjacent to the freeway, but the BMW “struck a tree and immediately caught fire,” Quintero said. The motorist was unable to exit the car and perished before Riverside Fire Department personnel reached the scene and knocked down the flames, according to the CHP spokesman.
Calderon was examined at a hospital and was determined to be uninjured, then was taken to jail.
Information on his prior convictions was not immediately available.