A 25-year-old punk rock singer apparently jumped from a limousine into predawn traffic on the San Diego Freeway in Costa Mesa on Wednesday, and was killed when struck by at least a dozen cars, authorities said.
The 5 a.m. incident triggered a huge rush-hour traffic jam.
"It's been a nightmare," said CHP Officer Denise Quesada at midmorning.
"It's horrible out there. This is probably one of the worst backups I've seen," she said.
The incident near South Coast Plaza closed the southbound lanes, clogging surrounding streets as commuters searched for alternate routes. By 10 a.m. traffic was backed up from the Los Angeles County line to the Fairview Road offramp, about 20 miles away, authorities said. The lanes were reopened about 11 a.m.
What prompted Jessica Rowe, an Irvine mother of two, to jump from the Hummer limousine and how it happened is a mystery, officials said.
Rowe was with other band members and friends in the nearly 17-foot-long, 20-passenger limousine. The driver told police that the vehicle was traveling about 65 mph, said Sgt. Marty Carver, a spokesman for the Costa Mesa Police Department.
Tuesday night, the group of six was socializing at the Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, said Tommy Wetzel, 41, owner of Exotic Limousines Inc. in Newport Beach.
Wetzel said his driver told him that Rowe and her boyfriend had argued at the Standard. "They were having words throughout the night," Wetzel said.
Later, the driver took the group to a Costa Mesa home where they continued to party, police said. After a few hours, the group left for Rowe's home. Rowe jumped from the limousine on the way there, Wetzel said the driver told him.
"We've seen a lot of drunk people. We've seen a lot of people trying to get out as we pull up to a stop, but nothing" like this, he said.
Rowe sat in the open window of the black limo before jumping, passengers told police. She was struck by at least 12 cars and died at the scene, officials said. Her death is being investigated as a suicide, Carver said.
Police shut down the southbound lanes about 6 a.m. as they investigated the scene and the coroner's office collected remains. Two lanes reopened an hour and a half later, but the commute had reached gridlock.
The stretch of freeway where the incident occurred is near the interchange of the San Diego and Costa Mesa freeways, one of the 10 busiest in the nation. Motorists make about 311,000 trips daily in each direction of the San Diego Freeway at Fairview. During rush hour, about 24,000 trips are made an hour, Caltrans officials said.
