A half-dozen people on their way to Mexico for a funeral were injured Friday, three fatally, when a blowout caused an SUV to crash and overturn on Interstate 15 in the far northern reaches of San Diego County.
A sheriff's deputy driving directly behind the group's black Ford Expedition in Fallbrook saw one of its rear tires suddenly shred to pieces near West Lilac Road shortly before 12:30 p.m., according to the California Highway Patrol.
The SUV then careened off the freeway, tumbled over a center barrier and came to rest upside down alongside the northbound lanes, CHP public-affairs Officer Jim Bettencourt said.
Two women and a man died at the scene. Medics took a 2-year-old girl and another man and woman to hospitals for treatment of apparently minor injuries.
The child is the daughter of one of the deceased women, both of whom had been riding unrestrained in the back of the Expedition, Bettencourt said. The victims' names were not immediately available.
The wreck forced the closure of stretches of the two center lanes of the interstate for a time and led to heavy traffic in the area into the mid-afternoon.
