La Jolla woman identified as victim of fatal accident on State Route 52

A 72-year-old La Jolla woman was killed last week when construction materials fell out of an overturning pickup on a Clairemont-area freeway bridge and landed on the vehicle she was in on State Route 52 below.

The San Diego County medical examiner’s office said May 30 that Karen Cooper was riding in an eastbound Mercedes-Benz SUV near San Clemente Park when a bag of cement crashed through the windshield and landed on her shortly before 1 p.m. May 26. Cooper died at the scene.

The drivers of the SUV and the pickup were uninjured. The driver of the truck told investigators that the pickup overturned after its load shifted on the elevated connector between southbound Interstate 805 and eastbound SR 52, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Samuel Mendoza. ◆