A man and his wife, who were both in their 70s, are dead following a chain-reaction nighttime crash on Interstate 8 in La Mesa.
The two were seated inside their stationary 2004 Toyota sedan with its lights off shortly before 7:30 p.m. on February 11, 2025, when a 2016 Dodge SUV rear-ended the apparently broken-down car on the eastbound side of the freeway west of Fletcher Parkway.
Following the impact, a 2017 Kia sedan, driven by a 63-year-old woman from El Cajon, struck the SUV, and the Allinas’ sedan was sent careening across the traffic lanes.
The elderly man died at the scene of the accident, despite the efforts of witnesses and paramedics who tried to revive him and his wife. An ambulance took his wife to Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, where she was pronounced dead.
La Mesa, a city of some 60,000 people about nine miles east of downtown San Diego, is an important part of the area’s cultural history.
Between 1911 and 1912, film pioneer Allan Dwan and his Flying A Studios directed over 150 silent films in La Mesa. He often used local mentions in the title of his works such as Bonita of El Cajon, Mystical Maid of Jamacha Pass, The Bandit of Point Loma, The Land Baron of San-Tee, and The Winning of La Mesa. After Dwan moved to Los Angeles, some observers commented that La Mesa missed its chance to be “Hollywood before Hollywood.”
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