A Riverside County Sheriff’s patrol vehicle and a Tesla collided in Calimesa on Saturday, Sept. 6, in a crash that left a civilian driver dead and a passenger seriously injured.
A sheriff’s deputy was driving westbound on Cherry Valley Boulevard just after 10 a.m. in a marked police vehicle with lights and sirens activated while responding to a call for service, according to a California Highway Patrol statement.
A Tesla Model 3 that had been stopped in the southbound lanes of Roberts Street made a left turn onto Cherry Valley Boulevard and was broadsided by the patrol vehicle, according to the CHP.
The driver of the Tesla was pronounced dead at the scene. CHP officials identified him as 21-year-old Gavin Hinkey of Cherry Valley.
A 20-year-old female passenger in the Tesla was taken to a hospital with what CHP officials described as major head trauma.
The deputy was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, CHP officials said, and suffered lacerations to his face. The CHP described him as a 41-year-old deputy who works out of the Cabazon station, and said his injuries were minor.
The cause of the crash — including why the Tesla made the left turn prior to the crash — is still under investigation, according to the CHP. But officials said they did not believe that alcohol or drugs played a factor.
CHP officials did not describe the nature of the emergency call the deputy was responding to at the time of the crash.
