210 Freeway lanes reopen after woman is struck, killed in fast lane

The eastbound lanes of the 210 Freeway have been reopened in Sylmar, where earlier Thursday morning a woman was killed after she was possibly pushed out of a speeding car onto the fast lane.

All eastbound lanes between the 5 Freeway and Hubbard Street were closed for about eight hours after the incident, which was reported about 1 a.m.

According to witnesses, a red car was being driven erratically when a woman either fell out, was pushed or jumped out of the car and was hit by at least two other vehicles before her body came to a rest in the fast lane, said Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Paul Vernon. The driver of the red car never stopped.

The incident investigation will likely evolve into a homicide case, Vernon said.

The woman “could’ve bailed out, jumped out of her own volition. But then again, she could’ve been shot, stabbed or hit. We just don’t know,” Vernon said. “Every moment that driver doesn’t turn him or herself in, it raises suspicions.”

A witness driving behind the red car told police it swerved left across the lanes toward the shoulder, then veered hard right before correcting itself. That’s when the passenger door opened and the women ended up on the freeway, Vernon said.

The witness pulled over to help.

“That witness made a valiant effort to help this woman,” Vernon said. “She called to her, encouraged her to come out of the lanes, but it happened so fast. There was just nothing anyone could do.”

The first car that struck the woman stopped. Others that subsequently ran over her did not.

“They probably never knew they were running over a body,” Vernon said.

Police have yet to identify the woman. Vernon said she had a tattoo on her neck – a quarter-sized emblem with small script, possibly in a foreign language, running across the front.

The woman was described as white and in her 30s.

“A red car, Sylmar, 1 a.m. and a tattoo – maybe that might jog someone’s memory,” Vernon said.

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Joseph.serna@latimes.com

@josephserna