Driver on cellphone near Temecula loses control of car, crashes and dies, CHP says

A 23-year-old motorist was killed on Monday, Dec. 30, when he lost control of his car while talking on his mobile phone and plunged down an embankment alongside the 15 Freeway near Temecula, slamming into a boulder, authorities said.

The death occurred shortly after midnight on the southbound 15, just south of the Temecula city limits, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Officer Mike Lassig, a CHP spokesperson, said the man was traveling in his Honda Civic and made “an unsafe turning movement, causing the Honda to travel off the roadway.”

The party the victim was speaking with via cellphone immediately called 911 when the phone call dropped off, Lassig said, and an “Apple notification that the driver was involved in a crash” was received by the caller.

The driver was pronounced dead at the scene.