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Driver falls asleep, crashes into Border Patrol checkpoint

The impact knocked a Chevrolet Avalanche pickup onto its side and shoved a Mercedes-Benz sedan into the fence along the freeway’s right shoulder

By Steven Barrie
The Press Enterprise

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A vehicle driven by a man who fell asleep at the wheel plowed into nine parked cars at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint, seriously injuring the passenger in the vehicle.

Just before 8:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 27, Riverside resident David Arriaga, 20, was driving a 2002 Chevrolet Suburban north on Interstate 15 just south of the Border Patrol’s checkpoint in Temecula, the Highway Patrol said in a news release.

Arriaga fell asleep and the vehicle swerved to the right across the freeway, slamming into the vehicles parked at the checkpoint, the CHP said. The impact knocked a Chevrolet Avalanche pickup onto its side and shoved a Mercedes-Benz sedan into the fence along the freeway’s right shoulder.

The unidentified passenger sitting in the Suburban’s right front seat suffered major injuries and was taken to a hospital. An update on the patient’s condition was not available.

The CHP did not say if Arriaga was hurt in the crash; pictures of the incident show a deployed airbag in the Suburban’s driver seat. The agency also did not say if he was arrested.

“The collision was avoidable,” the CHP said in the news release. “If you feel tired and fatigued it is not worth it to push your limits. It’s not just your life that you are putting at risk, it is also the lives of others around you.

“We are very fortunate that nobody was killed,” the CHP said.

Copyright 2012 The Press Enterprise, Inc.

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