A 25-year-old punk rock singer apparently jumped from a limousine into predawn traffic on the San Diego Freeway in Costa Mesa on Wednesday, and was killed when struck by at least a dozen cars, authorities said.
The 5 a.m. incident triggered a huge rush-hour traffic jam.
“It’s been a nightmare,” said CHP Officer Denise Quesada at midmorning.
“It’s horrible out there. This is probably one of the worst backups I’ve seen,” she said.
The incident near South Coast Plaza closed the southbound lanes, clogging surrounding streets as commuters searched for alternate routes. By 10 a.m. traffic was backed up from the Los Angeles County line to the Fairview Road offramp, about 20 miles away, authorities said. The lanes were reopened about 11 a.m.
What prompted Jessica Rowe, an Irvine mother of two, to jump from the Hummer limousine and how it happened is a mystery, officials said.
Rowe was with other band members and friends in the nearly 17-foot-long, 20-passenger limousine. The driver told police that the vehicle was traveling about 65 mph, said Sgt. Marty Carver, a spokesman for the Costa Mesa Police Department.
Tuesday night, the group of six was socializing at the Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, said Tommy Wetzel, 41, owner of Exotic Limousines Inc. in Newport Beach.
Wetzel said his driver told him that Rowe and her boyfriend had argued at the Standard. “They were having words throughout the night,” Wetzel said.
Later, the driver took the group to a Costa Mesa home where they continued to party, police said. After a few hours, the group left for Rowe’s home. Rowe jumped from the limousine on the way there, Wetzel said the driver told him.
“We’ve seen a lot of drunk people. We’ve seen a lot of people trying to get out as we pull up to a stop, but nothing” like this, he said.
Rowe sat in the open window of the black limo before jumping, passengers told police. She was struck by at least 12 cars and died at the scene, officials said. Her death is being investigated as a suicide, Carver said.
Police shut down the southbound lanes about 6 a.m. as they investigated the scene and the coroner’s office collected remains. Two lanes reopened an hour and a half later, but the commute had reached gridlock.
The stretch of freeway where the incident occurred is near the interchange of the San Diego and Costa Mesa freeways, one of the 10 busiest in the nation. Motorists make about 311,000 trips daily in each direction of the San Diego Freeway at Fairview. During rush hour, about 24,000 trips are made an hour, Caltrans officials said.
Wednesday morning, many drivers detoured off the freeway and used the Garden Grove Freeway, Pacific Coast Highway, the Santa Ana Freeway or surface streets.
But most found that it wasn’t any better. Because of construction on the Garden Grove Freeway, the congestion “was already heavy and it became heavier,” Quesada said.
Fountain Valley, with three offramps from the south San Diego Freeway, experienced some of the heaviest traffic. Drivers inched along major thoroughfares such as Brookhurst Street and Magnolia Street. The congestion contributed to five fender benders, police said.
“This has not only affected the freeway, but all of the cities that the 405 traveled through,” Quesada said.
Jason Cloud, 35, of Huntington Beach avoided the freeway after hearing about the congestion on the radio during his drive to work at the Laguna Beach Brewing Co. He took Pacific Coast Highway, but it also was packed.
“I was hoping this would be better,” said Cloud, a waiter, as he watched motorists turn onto Pacific Coast Highway from Brookhurst. “But it looks like a nightmare. It looks like I’m going to be late for work.”
Santa Ana resident Paulette Nghiem said her drive to work is typically a 30-minute commute to a Costa Mesa gas station. But Wednesday, it took an hour.
“It was just jammed,” said Nghiem, 54. “My car was going slow, slow, slow.”
Times staff writers Lomi Kriel and Dan Weikel contributed to this report.