POMONA >> A man died on an offramp of the 10 Freeway in Pomona Thursday after rear-ending a Caltrans truck while allegedly fleeing the scene of a previous minor collision, officials said.
The crash took place about 1:50 p.m. on the Fairplex Drive offramp of the eastbound 10 Freeway, California Highway Patrol Officer Rodrigo Jimenez said.
The name of the dead man was not released pending confirmation of his identity and notification of family members, he said. CHP officials initially believed to be a 36-year-old Palm Desert man.
He had been involved in a less-severe collision involving only minor injuries on the eastbound 10 Freeway just before the fatal collision, Jimenez said.
It appeared he was fleeing the scene of the first crash when he rear ended an elevated work platform truck stopped in a coned-off section of the offramp to work on electrical lines, the officer said.
The driver of the Caltrans truck was unhurt, he said. There was no one inside the bucket of the elevator truck.
Firefighters cut the Honda driver free of his 2001 Honda Civic before pronouncing him dead at the scene, according to Jimenez.
A 40-year-old Whittier man driving the car that the Honda initially struck and his passenger, a 49-year-old Moreno Valley woman, suffered apparently minor injuries, he added.
Officials shut down the offramp as they investigated the scene, Jimenez said. Traffic on the 10 Freeway was slowed as a result of the crash, though none of the traffic lanes were blocked.
The crash remained under investigation by officers from the Baldwin Park office of the CHP.