Car, Big Rig Collide Near Whitewater, Trapping Driver

Update 2 p.m.: 

A Palm Desert man was hospitalized Tuesday following a crash on Interstate 10 near Whitewater which had left him trapped in his vehicle under a big rig.

The accident on westbound Interstate 10, west of Whitewater, occurred about 8:00 a.m., according to CHP Spokesman Officer Darren Meyer.

According to Meyer, the unidentified 35-year-old man was driving his Volvo sedan "at a very high rate of speed," just before the crash happened.

"As the driver attempted to change lanes around slower moving traffic, he collided with a black Hyundai Elantra driven by a 57-year-old woman from Yucca Valley," Meyer said.

That Hyundai then slammed into the center divider, but the driver was not hurt.  It was a different story for the driver of the Volvo, though.

"The Volvo went the opposite direction and collided with a semi-truck which was merging onto the westbound lanes of I-10 from the rest area," Meyer explained.

The man in the Volvo— who was not wearing a seatbelt— rear-ended the big rig, and got stuck under the larger vehicle, according to CHP and fire reports.

Firefighters came and cut the driver from his car, and he was then taken to Desert Regional Medical Center with injuries described as "life-threatening."

"The CHP has not ruled out drugs or alcohol as a contributing factor to this collision," Meyer added.

The driver of the semi-truck was unharmed.

Original story as follows:

A motorist was seriously injured Tuesday in a rear-end crash that left a vehicle temporarily wedged under a tractor-trailer near Whitewater, according to CHP and fire reports.

The accident on westbound Interstate 10, west of Whitewater, occurred about 8:10 a.m., Riverside County Fire Department spokeswoman Laura Germany said.

CHP logs indicate two vehicles and a "refrigerated transport" big rig were involved in the collision. 

Firefighters rescued the trapped person and took him or her to a hospital, Germany said, adding that no other injuries were reported.