Tragedy Befalls San Diego Festival

A yearly Los Angeles to San Diego biker run and a Chicano Park festival was the scene of tragedy over the weekend when a truck plummeted from a bridge and onto vendor’s booths.

The accident claimed the lives of four people nearly instantly and injured nine others. Two of the nine injured suffered traumatic injuries.

The driver of the truck was later arrested on multiple charges, including suspicion of drunk driving. Immediately after the accident, he went into shock. Bystanders who rushed to help state he began asking them to contact his commanding officer.

Authorities were able to identify the man as 25-year-old Richard Anthony Sepolio, a Navy man who was stationed in Coronado.

Witnesses said that of the four fatalities, two were motorcyclists and two were attending a booth for the festival.

The driver of the pickup truck that plummeted over the bridge had been driving northbound on Interstate 5 when he turned west onto the bridge. He then lost control of the truck at about 3:45 p.m. on Saturday.

One of the festival’s attendees said that nearly 2,000 bikers left downtown Los Angeles on Saturday morning, bound for San Diego. There was a stop at Lake Elsinore casino and a final stop at the Barrio Logan Park for the Chicano Park Festival to cap off the run.

By nightfall, witnesses and mourners were creating a memorial for the dead with flowers and candles.

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