Three-car collision in La Mesa

On December 17 at 6:45 p.m., a three-car collision on the corner of Fletcher Parkway Drive and Baltimore Drive in La Mesa drew six police cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance. The destruction was said to be the result of a truck advancing on a red light.

According to the La Mesa Neighborhood Update, it took the La Mesa Police Department five and a half hours to get the intersection back to normal. The whole little block on Baltimore from Parkway Drive to Fletcher Parkway was blocked for many of those hours.

Police found two witnesses who saw basically the same thing. Both told police that the red truck that was traveling east on Fletcher Parkway made a left turn onto Baltimore Drive when the left-turn arrow was red. They said they saw a gray Toyota car and a Volvo station wagon both going south on Baltimore Drive when the gray Toyota car crashed into the red truck and then into the Volvo.

The gray Toyota suffered the most damage, coming to an abrupt stop against a curb. One of the witnesses, a young Asian man, added that he thought the young blonde woman driving the red truck was not paying attention to the correct traffic signal. It was his opinion that the woman was watching the green traffic light that governed through-traffic instead of the red turn light that told her to stop. He went on to say that he believed that this type of confusion happens every day.

Debbie, the other witness, believed that the gray Toyota car was speeding through the green light. She commented that she was a physics major and knew how to estimate speed.

The drivers of all three vehicles were upset and shaken. The young woman driver of the red truck was crying and a woman was trying to comfort her. The man and woman who were in the Volvo were remarking that they didn’t know what hit them when the gray Toyota car pushed them out of their lane.

The gray car was so damaged that rescue personnel had to force open the door to rescue the woman driver. They took her away on a stretcher in the ambulance. She was talking as they took her away. She said that she was fine.

It was a scary and emotional sight. Cars were mangled and people were crying. After awhile, La Mesa police officer Atwood said that the woman in the gray car was reported to only have minor injuries. The owners of the Volvo sighed and said that their insurance would take care of their car.