Driverless Car Runs Over, Kills Cathedral City Man in 'Freak Accident'

An investigation was underway Wednesday in Cathedral City, where a 48-year-old man was killed when he was struck by his own unoccupied vehicle that rolled from a driveway, according to police and Riverside County coroner's officials.

"It sounds like a freak accident," Cathedral City Police Captain Chuck Robinson told Palm Desert Patch.  "He got himself caught up, and the vehicle rolled over him." 

Jose Monjaras of Cathedral City was struck in the road in the 67000 block of Peineta Road, near Vista Chino and Gene Autry Trail, around 2 p.m. Monday and pronounced dead about an hour later at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, officials said.

The pick-up truck rolled from a driveway, struck Monjaras and came to rest in the front yard of a residence across the street, according to coroner's officials.

Robinson said there were no witnesses to the actual incident, so they've been trying to put together the evidence.

"The only thing that we've been able to piece together at this time...is it looks like the decedent was the owner of the vehicle and lived across the street and was working on the car [when the incident happened]," Captain Robinson said.

"It appears that while working on the car, the car rolled forward," he said of investigators' thoughts on what happened.   "[Monjaras] tried to stop the car from rolling into the street and was rolled up under the car."

Robinson said investigators are also waiting for in-depth autopsy results.

—City News Service contributed to this report.