Authorities Tuesday identified a 21-year-old Riverside man who died after he lost control of and was ejected from his vehicle in Palm Springs.
Officers responded to a report of a traffic crash at Garnet Avenue by Interstate 10 around 2:20 a.m. Monday, Officer Jason Montez with the California Highway Patrol told City News Service.
They located a blue Chevrolet Tahoe that had traveled off the roadway from eastbound Interstate 10 and came to rest at Garnet Avenue, Montez said. The driver, Nicolas Mattson, was found outside the vehicle with fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Montez said Mattson veered into the center divider of the freeway and attempted to correct his path by swerving to the right.
“The Chevrolet was then out of control in a southeasterly direction and it began to rotate in a clockwise manner,” Montez said. “The Chevrolet then left the freeway and traveled through a barbed-wire fence and onto the dirt road, which was Garnet [Avenue], and it overturned an unknown number of times.”
Montez said Mattson’s seatbelt was also cut either prior to or during the collision, which caused him to be ejected from the vehicle to where officers subsequently found him.
Alcohol or drugs were not suspected factors in the fatal accident.
