A woman died after she was possibly ejected from the vehicle she was driving following a lengthy pursuit that ended in a high-speed crash on the 5 Freeway Wednesday afternoon.
The pursuit began with the Los Angeles Police Department following an allegedly stolen Honda CR-V at about 1:45 p.m. near the eastbound 210 Freeway and Polk Street in Sylmar, police said.
By about 2:30 p.m. the driver, only identified as a woman, was on the northbound 5 Freeway near Castaic, sometimes topping speeds of 100 mph as CHP officers continued the chase.
After a series of risky moves, including at one point faking an exit, then quickly changing course back onto the freeway before the pursuing CHP officer could follow, the woman crashed at about 3 p.m. as she tried to exit the southbound 5 Freeway.
It appears she may have been ejected from the vehicle, and the CHP confirmed she was dead.
“Unfortunately, the vehicle was going too fast to negotiate the curve at the transition of the 5 South to the 138 and crashed,” CHP said in a late afternoon press conference. “This is not something we want, very unfortunate circumstances.”
No one else was injured during the chase. CHP Centra Division and CHP’s Special Accident Unit are now investigating the crash.
