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Crime & Safety

Woman Killed in Fiery I-10 Crash

Both sides of the freeway were back open following the early morning pile-up.

Interstate 10 was reopened in both directions Tuesday morning following a fiery crash that killed a woman in Palm Desert.

A Honda Accord slammed into a big rig truck on eastbound I-10, just west of the Washington Street exit at about 3:45 a.m., according to Jody Hagemann of the Riverside County Fire Department.

The driver of the passenger vehicle -- a woman -- died almost instantly, while the two occupants of the big rig were not hurt, Officer Joe Zagorski of the California Highway Patrol said.

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The car was registered to a Coachella Valley woman, but it was not immediately clear if the registered owner was the driver, he said.

He also said a determination of whether alcohol or drugs were involved would have to wait for the results of toxicology tests.

Find out what's happening in Palm Desertwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

All eastbound and westbound lanes were shut down for several hours, according to the CHP. Two of three lanes on the eastbound side were reopened.

Traffic was still backed up on eastbound I-10 to Cook Street as of 11 a.m. The cleanup was expected to take until 1 p.m., he said.

The woman was driving the wrong way on Washington Street, when she entered the freeway in wrong direction and slammed head-on with the big rig, according to the CHP.

The big rig occupants were able to get out before the fire erupted, Zagorski said.

Seventeen firefighters doused the flames from the crash in about 40 minutes, according to Hagemann.

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