A solo crash that killed a man on State Route 14 near Newhall Avenue on Wednesday afternoon may have been the result of a flat tire, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Initial calls indicated that a single-vehicle crash involving a white van was reported near the Newhall Avenue offramp from the northbound side of SR-14, Officer Carlos Burgos-Lopez, a spokesman for the CHP Newhall-area Office, said at the scene of the investigation.
In a followup with The Signal, Burgos-Lopez stated following an investigation officers learned that the van had a flat tire, which may have caused the driver to lose control and hit the dirt embankment before the van rolled over.
The driver of the van was the sole occupant of the vehicle and was described as an older man.
The man was ejected during the crash and first responders with the Los Angeles County Fire Department pronounced him deceased, Burgos-Lopez added. It was not immediately known whether he had been wearing a seat belt.
The CHP incident logs stated that units were dispatched at approximately 12:54 p.m. to a single-vehicle crash involving a van that was flipped over on its side. The log also stated that the van may have been traveling northbound.
No other vehicles were involved in the crash.
A SigAlert was issued for the northbound off-ramp as officers conducted their investigation at approximately 1:07 p.m. and remains closed as of the publication of this story.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Officer has not released the man’s name, pending identification and next of kin notification.
