Driver killed in solo-vehicle crash on Interstate 80 in Placer County, CHP Auburn unit says

A driver was killed Wednesday in a solo-vehicle collision on Interstate 80 north of Auburn, the California Highway Patrol said.

CHP officers responded to the crash a little before 11 a.m. where a driver of a vehicle drove off the freeway and down an embankment into a tree, according to a CHP Auburn unit news release.

Witnesses told officers that a Mercedes-Benz was traveling eastbound on I-80, west of Applegate Road, when the driver “suddenly swerved right and into the guardrail on the right shoulder.”

The vehicle continued down an embankment, struck a tree head-on and became fully engulfed in flames, the release said. The driver, who was the only person in the vehicle, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The identity of the driver has not been released.

The CHP is investigating why the driver swerved and if drugs or alcohol were a factor in the collision.