Woman Dies in Motorcycle Accident

Police are seeking witnesses to a motorcycle crash that threw a woman to the ground and perhaps under the wheels of another car during slow-moving rush hour traffic on the westbound Riverside Freeway.

Despite the thick traffic, no one who saw or was involved in the fatal accident stopped, according to a California Highway Patrol officer.

“We really need some witnesses, someone to call up and tell what they saw,” Powell said. “We’re trying to figure out what happened out there.”

The woman was the passenger on the rear of a motorcycle weaving through traffic by skirting the lines dividing two center lanes, Powell said. The driver of the motorcycle, a 39-year-old Fullerton man, was also critically injured in the 5:40 p.m. crash that created a huge traffic snarl. Both wore helmets.

Coroner’s investigators were working Thursday night to identify the woman, who died at the scene of the 5:40 p.m. crash. The motorcycle driver, whose name was not released Thursday, suffered a fractured neck and other major injuries when he was thrown to the road.

Traffic was moving about 10 to 15 mph, and the motorcycle driver was traveling “at a faster speed than the flow of traffic” when the incident occurred, Powell said.

The crash, near the Gilbert Street exit, created a major traffic snarl that stretched for miles and lasted for two hours, officials said. Drivers who came upon the victims in the road called authorities and stopped to help.

Investigators were unsure if any other vehicles were involved in the crash, and it was not clear whether the woman’s severe injuries were from the impact of her fall or vehicles running her over, Powell said.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Powell at (714) 892-4426.