A pedestrian who appeared to be walking a dog was struck and killed by an SUV in Sky Valley on Sunday night, and the dog died too. The motorist stayed at the scene afterward, according to investigators.
The crash happened at 8:18 p.m. Sunday on Dillon Road just east of Newport Road, according to the California Highway Patrol, as reported by MyNewsLA.com. Sky Valley is described in that report as a rural unincorporated area near Desert Hot Springs. The pedestrian's name, age and gender were not available as of the report.
CHP told the outlet the pedestrian appeared to have been walking a dog at the time of the crash, and that the dog was also killed. The driver of the SUV remained at the scene following the collision, per the same account.
Conflicting Accounts Of The Road Closure
Exactly which lanes were closed for the investigation is unclear. MyNewsLA.com's report states that eastbound lanes of Dillon Road were shut down while investigators worked the scene, but a separate crash-tracking page, chpfatal.com, instead describes westbound lanes as blocked and eastbound lanes as flared off around 8:37 p.m. The discrepancy between the two accounts has not been resolved.
A Road With A Troubled History
Sunday's crash is not the first fatal pedestrian collision on this stretch of road. In 2021, 78-year-old Coachella resident Linda Burtenshaw was killed in a separate Sky Valley collision on Dillon Road, according to The Desert Sun. Investigators in that case said a westbound 2018 Chevrolet drifted onto the shoulder, struck a parked 2020 Infiniti, and then hit Burtenshaw as she stood beside parked vehicles near Dillon and Lamel Drive, where she was pronounced dead at about 8:30 p.m. The Desert Sun noted at the time that Burtenshaw was at least the eighth pedestrian to die after being hit by a vehicle across the Coachella Valley that year.
The newspaper has also reported on the broader danger of the eastern stretch of Dillon Road. Between 2012 and 2016, the road saw 49 collisions, with unsafe speed identified as the primary factor in nine of them, including one crash on Dec. 17, 2013, that killed two people. A 2018 report from the same paper described a bicyclist killed on the road on Feb. 10 after being struck by a driver reportedly traveling around 100 mph during the Tour de Palm Springs event.
No further details about Sunday's crash, including the cause or any potential findings on speed or impairment, have been released.
