Truck falls from sky, crushes nine and kills four people in San Diego

Police stand near the pickup truck that landed at Chicano Park after it flew off a ramp to the San Diego Coronado Bridge. Photo / AP

A pickup truck plummeted 60 feet from a San Diego overpass on Saturday, crushing and killing four people who were attending a festival and injuring nine.

A member of the U.S. Navy was arrested after the pickup truck he was driving plunged off a San Diego bridge.

Authorities identified the driver as Richard Anthony Sepolio, 25, who was stationed at the naval base on Coronado Island across the bay from San Diego.

Sepolio was alone in the truck Saturday afternoon when he lost control and it struck a guardrail and fell 60 feet onto a vendor's booth at Chicano Park, California Highway Patrol Officer Jake Sanchez said.

He was taken to the hospital with major injuries and was later arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs causing deaths and injuries, the officer said.

The California Highway Patrol identified the deceased as a 62-year-old man and 50-year-old woman from Chandler, Arizona, and a 59-year-old man and 49-year-old woman from Hacienda Heights, a suburb east of Los Angeles, Associated Press reports.

The crash shattered a motorcycle festival at Chicano Park, where hundreds had gathered on a clear, sunny day. The truck landed on a tent selling T-shirts just steps from the front of a stage where a rockabilly band was playing. Festival attendees sprinted to the wreckage, lifting the battered truck to try to free the injured.

"It looked like Superman had thrown a car right off a bridge," Dolores D'Angelo told San Diego's NBC 7. "Pieces of car parts were flying all over the place.

"When we got up, we turned around, everybody started running over there because we realized, there were people sitting there - there were people sitting right there."

Eerie that there's still a light/turn signal blinking on the crashed truck. Going to be briefed shortly by officials. @10News pic.twitter.com/l8FqlJnBYQ

— Jeff Lasky (@10NewsLasky) October 16, 2016

The park was the ending point for La Raza Run, a motorcycle ride from Los Angeles to San Diego that had started about 8 a.m. Saturday. The San Diego Tribune reported that up to 2,000 bikers left downtown Los Angeles on Saturday morning headed for San Diego.

Motorcyclists and others arrived at the park around 12:30 p.m. By 3:30, a large crowd had gathered, looking at art, perusing a VIP raffle and listening to live music.

On the freeway above at about the same time, Sepolio was trying to get from a northbound lane onto Interstate 5, troopers said. He lost control of the tan truck, which ran through a guard rail and plunged into the park.

The scene was "instant chaos and panic," one attendee told the Tribune.

Praying for victims & families affected by the tragedy in Chicano Park.Devastated this occured in one of our community's most beloved places

— Kevin Faulconer (@Kevin_Faulconer) October 16, 2016

As first responders and attendees rushed to help the victims, Sepolio, apparently in shock, asked someone to call his commanding officer. He was taken to the hospital and ultimately charged with DUI causing death.

"It's horrible. Its horrific," Officer Jake Sanchez of the California Highway Patrol told reporters. "Innocent people were down here having a good time."

By nightfall Saturday, an impromptu memorial had sprung up at the scene of the wreckage, with more than a dozen candles forming a cross.

Growing memorial at Chicano Park. Drunk driver killed 4 people. Nine injured (including driver) @10News 6:52am pic.twitter.com/nP97YQtVpq

— Matt Mendes (@MattMendes911) October 16, 2016

- additonal reporting by AP