Driver Tells CHP About Fatal ‘Road Rage’ Incident

NEWHALL —  A van driver involved in an accident that killed two women on the Golden State Freeway Wednesday--tentatively blamed on “road rage”--walked into the California Highway Patrol station here on Thursday to tell his version of events.

Pierre Gaucher, 47, of Northridge told police that a Mercury Cougar bumped his minivan from behind as he was traveling down the Roxford Street offramp in Sylmar, CHP officers said.

After the encounter, the car sped back up the ramp onto the freeway, traveling in the wrong direction, and crashed head-on into a truck, resulting in the deaths of the two women aboard.

Police said it may have been a case of road rage because witnesses said the women were making obscene gestures and honking at the van driver before tailgating him down the exit ramp. They also appeared to turn sharply to deliberately spatter his van with mud splashed by their car’s tires.

The dead women were identified as Delfina Gonzales Morales, 42, and her daughter, Maria Laura Morales Gonzales, 26.

CHP spokesman Doug Sweeney said investigators had yet to determine why the women taunted Gaucher or why Morales drove back up the exit ramp into oncoming traffic.

Gaucher told investigators that he had not noticed Morales’ Cougar until it hit his rear bumper, Sweeney said.

Gaucher declined to speak to reporters. A woman who answered the phone at Gaucher’s home and identified herself as Gaucher’s wife said the damage to the van was minimal.

Gaucher heard about the accident on television, the woman said, and drove to the Newhall CHP station Thursday morning to give his account of the incident.

Sweeney emphasized that Gaucher was not at fault and faces no action by police.

Meanwhile, grieving family members gathered under a rain-soaked awning in front of Morales’ San Fernando trailer home. Margarito Morales said his mother, who had four sons and one daughter, was a devout Catholic who attended Santa Rosa Church services every Sunday.

“She worked hard every day for minimum wage,” he said.

Margarito Morales said his family has suffered several tragedies recently, losing another sibling in a drug-related shooting. He and his brothers declined to elaborate or offer any other details about his dead mother and sister.

Witnesses told police that after the encounter with Gaucher’s van, Morales drove back up the ramp and re-entered the freeway at about 45 mph. Her car crashed into an Exec-U-Mail truck driven by Victorino Raul Martin Perez, 27, of Venice, whose truck the CHP estimated was traveling at about 65 mph.

“I saw the car in front of me,” Perez said. “It was a fast thing--1, 2, 3 and that was it. I couldn’t brake.”

The impact tore off the front axle and knocked Perez’s two-ton truck on its side.

Morales’ car was ripped in half, and both women were killed.

“It was an incredible thing that nothing happened to me,” said Perez, who escaped without major injury.

Another car, driven by an off-duty Los Angeles Fire Department captain, was also destroyed in the accident. The driver, George DeMott, 58, suffered only cuts and bruises when the toppling truck crumpled the passenger side of his Camaro.