Woman fleeing police pursuit struck and killed by vehicles on I-80 in North Sacramento
A 19-year-old woman on foot fleeing from a police pursuit was struck and killed early Saturday in the eastbound lanes of the North Sacramento Freeway.
A spokesman for the California Highway Patrol said one person was struck by “multiple vehicles” on Interstate 80 just after 4 a.m. near the Raley Boulevard overpass. It was not clear how many vehicles struck the person, but the CHP said she was initially struck by a “large vehicle.”
CHP officials said that the fatality occurred after several occupants poured out of a vehicle that had crashed on the on-ramp where Raley Boulevard becomes Marysville Boulevard in Del Paso Heights. One of the vehicle’s occupants, a woman, “entered the eastbound lanes of I-80 as a pedestrian and was hit.”
Minutes before the fatality, the vehicle had been involved in a police chase, according to the CHP and the Sacramento Police Department.
A Sacramento police spokesperson said officers tried to pull over a vehicle about 3 a.m. in the area of Evergreen Street and Del Paso Boulevard in Old North Sacramento. The vehicle then led officers on a pursuit. Police called off the chase about 3:50 a.m. after officers “lost sight of the vehicle,” authorities said.
A few minutes later, police dispatchers relayed a call to police about a collision on the freeway, saying that it may have involved the suspect vehicle. Officers arrived and secured the scene before CHP arrived; the CHP said the woman struck was pronounced dead at the scene by firefighters.
The Coroner’s Office identified the woman as Fatina Chaney of Sacramento.
A debris field from other objects involved in the crash “spanned all eastbound lanes and at least 200 feet” of the freeway, prompting all eastbound lanes to be shut down, the CHP said. Two vehicles that had hit the woman also stopped at the scene to talk with authorities.
It was unclear if any of the other occupants of the pursued vehicle were detained; police said the incidents leading up to the fatality remained under “an active investigation.”
Eastbound lanes of the freeway were shut down at Norwood Avenue for about two hours as both agencies continued their investigations and cleaned up the debris field. Caltrans crews were also dispatched to repair guardrails that one of the vehicles struck after hitting the woman.
