DUI pickup driver Temecula, CA fatality

Ok. Fine. Have it your way. But having multiple lions on hand might make things entertaining.

 

I hate that so often the drunk walks away from these crashes with no injuries.

 

In Colorado, 1 in 6 adults smoke pot on the regular. You can tell when you drive there, too.

 

Me, too.

 

Me three.

 

While driving my car, I once had to swerve into another lane to [barely] evade one of those. It was only about 4 seconds of time to work with, and that with careful attention to mirrors.

This was followed up by a decision to mostly stay off the highway while not driving a truck if on the highway is anything other than very light traffic.

 

Get this....He was running from an accident he had just caused a mile back....

Pace argued that Caldera should not be given bail. The judge agreed after hearing the DA describe the circumstances of the crash, saying Caldera had just hit another car and was fleeing the scene a mile before this fatal wreck.

The DA's office said Caldera told investigators he was heading to Mexico at the time, so they consider him to be a flight risk.

Temecula crash: DUI suspect charged with second-degree murder in fatal chain-reaction wreck on 15 Freeway

 

But wait, there is more!

An Auburn man — who police tracked with a K-9 unit for several hours and eventually arrested in November after a pursuit with Washington State Patrol ended in Centralia — is in custody in southern California for allegedly causing a chain-reaction crash that killed one person and injured others.

An online inmate roster at a correctional facility in Banning, California, indicates Javier Caldera, 25, is being held on suspicion of felony murder, vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence. He’s being held on $1 million bail.

At around 2:30 a.m. Nov. 24, Caldera led state troopers in a southbound chase down Interstate 5, starting in Thurston County and ending with a crash in Centralia city limits. According to court documents filed in Thurston County Superior Court — where Caldera was tried and eventually pleaded guilty to one count of eluding — he told troopers he fled because he felt threatened.


During the chase, Caldera went down the Exit 82 ramp, crashing his vehicle into a fence, Sgt. Dave Clary told The Chronicle at the time. He fled from the crashed vehicle and crossed back over I-5, causing a vehicle to swerve and crash to avoid hitting him. He ran to the area of the Centralia Outlet Mall, documents indicate, and local law enforcement descended on the scene with K-9 officers. The search ended at around 4:30 a.m. when officers said they were unable to find him.

A description of the suspect was distributed to store employees, and at 8:20 a.m., someone called 911, saying they had spotted Caldera. Centralia police officers took him into custody, and he was transported to the Thurston County Jail.

In December, a judge ordered Caldera to be evaluated by specialists from Western State Hospital to determine whether he was fit to stand trial. And while an evaluation did indicate a presence of substance abuse disorder, it also notes he “presented no symptoms of a mental disease or defect that appeared to impair in any significant manner, his ability to have a factual or rational understanding of the court proceedings he faces.”


On Jan. 15, he pleaded guilty to felony eluding, with misdemeanor counts of driving with a suspended license and operating without an ignition interlock device being dismissed.

He had an offender score of TWO, which in that instance set the standard sentencing range for the offense to two to five months. He was sentenced on the low end of that scale — to two months behind bars.

On Tuesday, Caldera was arrested in Temecula, California, after he allegedly drove a pickup truck into the rear of another vehicle on Interstate 15, while traveling at a high rate of speed. The other vehicle’s driver, a 44-year-old California woman, was killed. A YouTube video showing camera footage of the incident depicts a man — allegedly Caldera — stagger from the scene and fall down.

California media outlets reported that Caldera was uninjured, but three other individuals were hurt. The crash caused a chain-reaction that damaged four other vehicles.

 

That Washington state judge has some culpability in this matter.