Woman dies on 405

A woman in her mid-20s died on the San Diego Freeway (405) early

Wednesday morning after she jumped out the window of a limousine

traveling at 65 mph and was struck by several vehicles, police said.

The incidentbacked up traffic for miles in both directions,

disrupting the morning commute of thousands of people. In the

southbound lanes of the 405, traffic was channeled to one lane.

Police are investigating the incident as a suicide, said Sgt.

Marty Carver of the Costa Mesa Police Department.

The woman has not yet been identified, but she is believed to be a

member of a German music group, Carver said.

The Hummer limo was traveling southbound on the 405 between the

Harbor Boulevard and Fairview Road exits shortly after 5 a.m. when

the woman was killed, police said. The limo was carrying five other

passengers who appeared to have been drinking, Carver said.

The limo belonged to Newport Beach-based Exotic Limousine, and the

driver had picked up a group of people, including the woman, from a

residence in Irvine on Tuesday night, said Tommy Wetzel, owner and

chief executive of Exotic Limousine.

The group had reserved the limo from 5 p.m. Tuesday to 1 a.m.

Wednesday, Wetzel said.

The limo driver, a 26-year-old man who has been with the company

for more than a year, took the group to a Los Angeles hotel, where

they attended a party, Wetzel said.

Police said the group drove from L.A. to a house in Costa Mesa and

were headed to Irvine to drop off the woman at her residence when the

incident occurred.

The driver told his employer the woman was a singer in a popular

German punk band. She was traveling with friends and a few people

they had picked up at the party in L.A., Wetzel said.

The woman and her boyfriend had been fighting throughout the

night, the driver told Wetzel.

“Obviously, one thing led to another, and on the way home she

decided to get out of the car, one way or another,” Wetzel said.

The limousine driver told Wetzel he didn’t know the woman had

jumped out until he heard screaming coming from the back, Wetzel

said. The partition was up, creating a visual and sound barrier

between the driver and the passengers, Wetzel said.

By the time the driver stopped the limo, near the onramp to the

Costa Mesa Freeway (55), the limo was more than one mile from where

the woman’s body was found, Wetzel said.

When the limo stopped, the driver told Wetzel, the woman’s

boyfriend ran back to where the woman had jumped, Wetzel said.

Police do not know how many vehicles hit the woman, Carver said.

California Highway Patrol received numerous calls from motorists who

reported having hit something, unaware it was likely the woman’s

body.

As of 10 a.m. Wednesday, police were still working at the scene.

The black limousine sat in the center lane just north of the Fairview

Road exit. Wetzel said police repositioned the car in the location

where the woman jumped.

Wetzel said the driver is upset and still trying to cope with the

early morning accident.

“He’s devastated,” Wetzel said.

At 3 a.m. Wednesday, the driver had called in and reported that

the night was going well -- the group was spending freely and the

driver said he was expecting a large tip.

Hours later, Wetzel said he got a “dramatic phone call” from the

driver, relaying the tragic end to the night. “We deal with some

crazy stuff, but nothing to this extreme,” Wetzel said, who has owned

and operated his limousine business for 13 years.