Gladys Cruz Maeda Obituary, Death; – A 44-year-old woman was inspecting her vehicle for damage after accidentally colliding with a traffic control device on Interstate 215 in Murrieta when she was struck and killed by a suspected drunk driver who fled the scene but was later captured, authorities reported on Monday.
Gladys Cruz Maeda, a resident of Lake Elsinore, was fatally struck at 2:30 a.m. on Sunday while traveling southbound on I-215, just north of Murrieta Hot Springs Road, as stated by the California Highway Patrol.
According to the CHP, Maeda was driving her 2014 Nissan Murano when she collided with a brightly colored, water-filled traffic attenuator barrel that had been placed to slow down traffic in a construction zone on the freeway.
Officer Russ Robertson indicated that Maeda was assessing the damage to her mid-size SUV when a motorist, traveling at an unspecified speed in his 2004 Honda Accord, crashed into her vehicle in the construction area.
“The adult male driver fled the scene,” Robertson noted. Emergency personnel from Murrieta Fire & Rescue arrived within 15 minutes and pronounced the victim dead at the scene. Her passenger, identified only as a male, sustained no injuries.
CHP officers gathered evidence that led to the identification of the vehicle involved in the hit-and-run, resulting in an arrest warrant being issued and executed at the suspect’s residence on Sunday afternoon, according to Robertson.
He mentioned that the man, whose name was withheld on Monday, was taken into custody without incident and booked into the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta on charges of DUI gross vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run.
Information regarding bail was not immediately available.
