A Castaic woman who was killed after walking onto Interstate 5 early Tuesday morning has been identified by the L.A. County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office.
Investigators identified Hailey Smither, 28, as the woman who was fatally struck by a big rig at approximately 2:15 a.m. on the northbound side of the I-5, near Lake Hughes Road, according to Sarah Ardalani, a spokeswoman for the Coroner’s Office.
The big rig, a 2016 white International Navistar, was traveling northbound at approximately 55 mph “when a female pedestrian ran across traffic lanes and was struck,” California Highway Patrol Newhall Office investigators wrote in their initial incident report.
“The vehicle was driven by a 39-year-old male and the pedestrian was a female, approximately 30 years of age,” the CHP report reads. “The vehicle collided into the pedestrian within traffic lanes, which caused the pedestrian to travel several feet before coming to rest.”
The No. 4 lane on the I-5 was closed for approximately 3.5 hours due to the investigation, according to CHP investigators.
The cause for the woman running into traffic was not immediately clear as of Tuesday morning, and investigators said it remained unknown whether drugs and/or alcohol are factors in the collision, pending investigation.
