According to California Highway Patrol officials, a man and a woman on Sunday were decapitated in a drunken crash on the 5 Freeway.
Authorities believe alcohol and excessive speed played a role in the crash, which occurred shortly before 1 a.m. in the southbound l¬anes at the 405 Freeway interchange between Sylmar and Mission Hills.
Juan Carlos Menjivar, 37, of Winnetka, was driving a 2010 Lexus car with Ana Elena Moreno Santos, 33, of Los Angeles, as a passenger.
The Lexus collided with the rear of a semi-truck parked on the right shoulder of the motorway after Menjivar “failed to maintain the curve in the roadway before going out of control,” according to CHP officers.
Both were declared dead at the scene after sustaining “severe head trauma,” according to CHP spokesperson Ramondo Alexander.
KTLA-TV Channel 5 caught video from the incident, which revealed the car’s twisted wreckage.
According to the driver of the semi-truck, a 35-year-old male who requested anonymity, the silver sedan caught on fire immediately after the crash.
“All I felt was a severe blow,” he explained. “I felt as though I had been struck by a semi.”
The driver of the semi-truck was unharmed in the crash.
