Santa Clarita Valley sheriff’s deputies responded to what ended up as a fatal collision Wednesday night in Saugus, officials said.
A driver heading southbound on Bouquet Canyon Road was “sideswiped” by another vehicle as his car was leaving the driveway not far from the Goodwill store around 9:50 p.m., according to Detective Cramer of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station’s Traffic Unit.
The collision caused one of the vehicles to spin out, hit a fire hydrant, then a utility pole, before coming to a stop, officials said.
The driver of a black VW Jetta, whose vehicle was hit by the driver of a black Honda Pilot, was later declared dead at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital from injuries sustained in the crash, Cramer said.
The driver who was believed to be responsible for the crash did not sustain significant injuries and was not transported from the scene, according to officials.
The person was not arrested for the crash, and the cause is still under investigation as of Thursday morning.
The identities of those involved in the crash were not released by sheriff’s officials.
The crash is the second fatal incident under investigation by the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station Traffic Unit. The first crash was also in the Saugus area, but it was in the parking lot of a Saugus elementary school shortly during the school’s holiday break in January.
Wednesday night’s fatality brings the total number of those killed in road-related crashes in the Santa Clarita Valley this year to eight, including a half-dozen crashes that are under invesitgation by the California Highway Patrol. The two law enforcement agencies share responsibility for patrolling Santa Clarita Valley’s roadways.
Anyone with information regarding the crash is asked to call the Traffic Unit at 661-255-1121.
About two weeks later, CHP was on scene investigating the first of two fatal crashes near where Highway 126 meets Chiquito Canyon Road. The first on Sunday afternoon, took place Jan. 31, and then less than a month later, at the same intersection, a crash was reported at 6:20 p.m. on Feb. 25.
On March 3, CHP officers were called to the scene of another fatal crash, this time on the southbound lanes of Interstate 5, near the Highway 14 juncture, around 9:50 a.m.
Shortly after midnight on Sunday, April 1, driver Tiesha Shepherd, 37, and her passenger Johnnie Mitchell, 48, both of Lancaster, were the sixth and seventh people killed in road-related crashes in just the first three months of the year.