On the day of October 19th, 2022 at approximately 6 pm, a 35-year-old woman (Diana Aguirre) was said to be walking on the highway intersection heading South when she was suddenly struck at the Ethanac Road intersection by a silver Honda Accord with no front bumper and major damage to the windshield. According to CHP (California Highway Patrol), Diana was thrown up into the Honda Accord’s windshield. After this occurred, there began to be many eyewitness reports and an innumerable amount of 911 calls, but unfortunately, by the time first responders arrived, Diana had already been pronounced dead.

After this incident occurred, the anonymous driver of the 2015 Accord was recognized as “traveling westbound on SR-74,” according to Patch.com. This anonymous driver wasn’t seen enough by any witnesses to find this person, but by what some bystanders had seen the driver appeared to be a male. In addition, the “man” was heading west to an undisclosed location; as he was seen fleeing the scene shortly after. According to Mike Lassig who is a CHP officer, ¨later this same evening, the car that the man drove was found abandoned off the Highway and Greenwood Avenue.¨  Depending on his intentions, this John Doe has not been found and can potentially be a threat.

This accident occurred in Riverside County CA on Highway 74. On April 10, 2022, on this same highway, two people were killed and two minors were injured and hospitalized from a so-called “Head-on crash” between a hatchback and a sports car that sadly collided with one another. In this accident, many witnesses were claiming there was a “wrong-way” driver. According to the authorities, a person died in each car in this fatality.  According to Cal Fire/ Riverside County Fire Department and the Califonia Highway Patrol just before 2:30 a.m., ¨a Ford Mustang was told to be driving the wrong way on Highway 74 when it slammed into a Kia Forte near Lake Elsinor early that Sunday¨. In this accident, both drivers sadly died on the scene as reported by CHP as well as two passengers under the age of 18 on the Kia Forte were severely injured and hospitalized according to Arendt. As of now, there have been no updates on the survivors in terms of possible hospital release or any critical conditions prior to this unfortunate incident.

This Highway is a popular route among motorcyclists and commuters between the inland Empire and Orange County area. Not to mention that highway 74 is only 17.7 miles away from Santiago Highschool, which is about a nineteen-minute drive. This means many students from Santiago Highschool may drive on this route to get from place to place on occasion. With that it is important to take the time to make people more aware of others and to apply the term, ¨Drive for others and yourself.¨