Authorities Tuesday publicly identified a La Mesa couple who were killed this week in a chain-reaction nighttime traffic accident on I-8 near the Grossmont Center mall.
James Allina, 79, and his 77-year-old wife, Rosalyn, were seated inside a stationary sedan with its lights off shortly before 7:30 p.m. Monday when another vehicle rear-ended the apparently broken-down car on the eastbound side of the freeway west of Fletcher Parkway in La Mesa, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Following the impact, another vehicle struck the SUV, and the Allinas’ sedan was sent careening across the traffic lanes, the agency reported.
James Allina died at the scene of the accident, despite the efforts of witnesses and paramedics who tried to revive him and his wife. An ambulance crew took Rosalyn Allina to Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, where she was pronounced dead.
It was unclear why the couple’s vehicle had stopped on the freeway, according to the medical examiner.
