One person was killed and two others were seriously injured Tuesday in a collision on Interstate 15 that sent one car careening into a parking structure at Temecula City Hall.
Two additional patients were treated for minor injuries from the crash, which occurred at 7:28 a.m. on the southbound I-15, south of Rancho California Road, according to the Riverside County Fire Department and the California Highway Patrol.
According to the CHP, a vehicle cut across multiple lanes of the freeway and into the path of a car that went off the road and slammed into the Temecula City Hall parking structure, located just west of the freeway.
The mangled wreckage of that sedan came to rest between the freeway and the parking structure. Another badly damaged car came to a stop blocking freeway lanes, and the drivers of at least two other vehicles with less serious damage pulled to the side of the freeway.
Two people involved in the crash escaped injury.
Officers initially shut down all lanes of southbound I-15 in the area, as well as the southbound ramp from Rancho California Road to the freeway, triggering a SigAlert. Traffic was clogged on the southbound I-15 and I-215 through Temecula and Murrieta through late morning.
The far right lane of the freeway was reopened a little less than an hour after the crash, according to the CHP. All lanes were reopened just after 11 a.m.