Firefighters cut two people out of a mangled vehicle Friday afternoon after a crash at the intersection of Dillon Road and Happy Valley Road in Indio, then watched helicopters lift both patients away with major injuries. The collision was reported just before 1 p.m., setting off a scramble to free the trapped occupants and get them care fast.
According to CAL FIRE/Riverside County Fire Department
, the traffic collision was reported at 12:51 p.m. at the intersection. Firefighters arrived to find two patients trapped inside one vehicle and had to extricate them before they could be treated and moved, the department said. Both patients were ultimately flown by air ambulance to an area hospital with major injuries, per the same report.
The department's post, which included the hashtag #DillonIC, did not specify how many vehicles were involved beyond the one from which patients were extricated, nor did it describe what caused the crash or which direction traffic was moving at the time. No information on road closures, an ongoing investigation, or which law enforcement agency responded was included in the report.
A Road With a History of Speed-Related Wrecks
Dillon Road has a reputation locally that predates Friday's crash. The road stretches roughly 24 miles between Long Canyon Road and Avenue 44, and has long been described as a mostly straight route through open desert with a 55 mph speed limit, minimal traffic and almost no stop signs, according to desertsun.com. That same reporting found that in 2015, traffic counts ranged from 11,245 vehicles a day between Long Canyon and Thousand Palms Canyon roads down to just 1,412 vehicles east of Thousand Palms Canyon, with 3,737 recorded near Avenue 44.
Despite that relatively light traffic, unsafe speed was blamed as the primary factor in nine of 49 collisions recorded on the eastern stretch of Dillon Road between 2012 and 2016, the outlet reported. One of those nine speed-related crashes killed two people on Dec. 17, 2013. The California Highway Patrol has staffed an officer tasked with responding to traffic complaints and focusing enforcement on particular problem areas as needed, according to the same report.
Other Recent Crashes Near Dillon Road
The stretch of road and its surrounding corridor have seen other serious crashes in recent months and years. In February, a wrong-way crash on Interstate 10 near Dillon Road killed one person, according to kesq.com. That crash involved a Nissan Sentra traveling the wrong way in the eastbound lanes of I-10, just east of Dillon Road, which collided head-on with a Toyota Camry. The Sentra's driver was suspected of driving under the influence and suffered critical injuries that he later died from, while the Camry's driver sustained only minor injuries, the station reported.
Further back, a rollover crash near Berdoo Canyon Road in Indio Hills killed two teenagers. In that crash, the driver traveled between 85 and 100 mph before losing control of a 2013 Hyundai, which struck a dirt berm and rolled multiple times. That collision shut down the intersection for more than four hours.
No such closure details have been confirmed for Friday's crash at Dillon and Happy Valley roads, and the identities, ages and exact hospital destination of the two patients involved remain unknown.
