Motorhome Pins Man Stopped Along SR 76; Driver Facing DUI Charges

A Temecula man was pinned between his vehicle and an allegedly drunken Poway man’s 34-foot motorhome that lurched forward after both had stopped on the side of state Route 76 near Oceanside, and suffered major injuries, authorities said.

The 2002 Hurricane Motorhome, driven by Jeffery Thomas Smith, 58, of Poway, pulled up behind the other vehicle on the right shoulder of the eastbound lanes near East Vista Way about 1:40 p.m. Sunday, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Jim Bettencourt.

The 59-year-old Temecula man, whose name was not released, had been securing some items in his vehicle and asked his wife to keep an eye on the RV from the passenger seat because it was close behind, Bettencourt said.

“Suddenly his wife felt the impact of the motorhome colliding into the back of their vehicle,” Bettencourt said in a statement. “Her husband was pinned between the two vehicles.”

A helicopter flew the injured man to Palomar Medical Center, authorities said. The woman was not injured.

Smith was arrested and booked into the Vista Detention Facility on suspicion of felony drunken driving causing injury, according to Bettencourt. He was being held on $100,000 bail, according to jail records.

The crash remained under investigation, he said.

-City News Service