Hesperia Woman's Civic Goes Airborne Into Bear Valley Road, Injures Two

A 34-year-old Hesperia woman is behind bars after witnesses said her Honda Civic went airborne off a sidewalk and crash-landed into oncoming traffic on Bear Valley Road in Victorville, injuring two people and triggering a multi-vehicle pileup. Victoria Larios was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence causing bodily injury and remains in custody without bail.

According to KTLA, San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies responded around 5 p.m. on August 22 to a three-vehicle crash at the intersection of Bear Valley and Ridgecrest roads. Witnesses told deputies that Larios had been driving her Civic at high speeds on Santa Fe Avenue before veering onto a sidewalk, sending the car airborne and down into the eastbound lanes of Bear Valley Road, where it slammed into a Kia Sorento SUV and a Kia Forte sedan.

The crash unfolded on the Bear Valley Road bridge between Ridgecrest Road and Industrial Boulevard, scattering vehicle debris across the roadway and drawing multiple ground ambulances to the scene, according to VVNG. Two people riding in the Kia Sorento were hurt, and its driver suffered major injuries and was rushed to a trauma center, per the KTLA report.

A Corridor With a Troubling Recent Pattern

Larios's arrest lands in the middle of an unusually rough stretch for the Ridgecrest Road and Bear Valley Road corridor. Just four days earlier, on August 18, a 34-year-old Hesperia driver was cited for DUI after running a red light in a pickup truck and colliding with a cement truck at that same intersection of Bear Valley Road and Ridgecrest Road — a crash Hoodline detailed in its report on the Silverado-cement truck collision.

Eight days before that, on August 14, a violent three-vehicle crash along Ridgecrest Road killed two teenage girls from Victorville and Hesperia. CHP logs indicated the vehicles were possibly racing, but CHP had not confirmed that street racing caused the crash. That case culminated in the surrender of a 50-year-old suspect who now faces murder and gross negligence vehicular manslaughter charges, as reported by VVNG in its account of the suspect's surrender. Together, the three incidents have put the corridor under heightened scrutiny in a matter of days.

Felony Charges and a Heavily Traveled Route

Larios was arrested for driving under the influence causing bodily injury. Under California Vehicle Code Section 23153, that offense can be prosecuted as a felony punishable by up to four years in state prison, with possible license suspension and fines, according to the Kann Law Office.

Victorville has no standalone municipal police department; the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department handles public safety and traffic enforcement citywide out of its Victorville Station, per the Yaghmai Law Firm. Bear Valley Road itself is a heavily traveled truck and commuter route carrying roughly 16,000 vehicles daily between U.S. Route 395 and Bellflower Street. The City of Victorville has also identified Bear Valley Road for roadway improvements.

The corridor's history of severe crashes stretches back years. In September 2019, a fatal two-vehicle crash on Bear Valley Road near Balsam Avenue killed one driver and required a medical helicopter to transport another to a trauma center after one of the cars caught fire. Recent reports involving the corridor have included possible racing and DUI arrests.

Countywide Numbers Show Slow Progress

Countywide Numbers Show Slow Progress Zoomed out, countywide figures provide broader context even as individual weeks feel alarming. Traffic collisions across San Bernardino County injured or killed nearly 15,000 residents in 2025, according to San Bernardino County's own community indicators data. Statewide, alcohol-impaired driving fatalities fell 4.5% from 1,419 in 2022 to 1,355 in 2023, though total alcohol-involved traffic deaths remain nearly 55% higher than a decade earlier in 2014, per the California Office of Traffic Safety.

Anyone with information about the crash is urged to call the Victorville Station at 760-241-2911 or the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department at 760-956-5001. Anonymous tipsters can also contact We-Tip by calling 844-909-3006, texting a report to that same number, or submitting information online at WeTip.com.