1 dead in Ortega Highway crash in Riverside County

One person died and another had to be airlifted for treatment late Sunday morning following a two-motorcycle crash on Ortega Highway near Ortega Oaks, site of the San Juan Loop trailhead and the landmark Ortega Oaks Candy Store in Riverside County, authorities said.

A earlier crash on the highway, about three miles to the northeast, may have contributed to the second, fatal one.

The California Highway Patrol log said the fatal crash southwest of Lake Elsinore was reported just before 11 a.m. and involved two motorcycles. A log entry said it appeared the bikes “didn’t slow for the other (traffic collision.)

The roadway, Highway 74,  was closed both directions until early afternoon near the site of the fatal crash.

The earlier major-injury collision was also on Ortega Highway, near  El Cariso Road and just west of Hell’s Kitchen Motorsports Bar and Grill.

Reported about one hour before the fatal crash, a motorcycle was reported stuck under a white Honda, according to CHP logs.

 

In the fatal crash, the Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department tweeted that one patient was taken to a hospital by air, and the second was being treated by paramedics at the scene, but died.

No further information was immediately available.