Car Passenger Dies After Horse Smashes Through Windshield: Reports

A man has died after a horse collided with the vehicle he was traveling in through Norco, California.

On Sunday, Sept. 22 at around 2:05 a.m. local time, firefighters responded to reports of a “solo vehicle traffic collision with a horse” on the northbound lanes of Interstate 15, per a Facebook post shared by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) / Riverside County Fire Department.

“Upon arrival, firefighters declared one victim and horse perished at the scene, and the other patient (the driver) was transported by ground ambulance with minor injuries,” the message read.

Local outlet The San Bernardino Sun cited California Highway Patrol spokesman Javier Navarro as stating that the victim was a 25-year-old man who had been in the front seat of a gray Honda Accord when the animal reportedly went through the car’s windshield.

The horse reportedly got loose after the car towing its trailer struck a guardrail. According to The San Bernardino Sun, the horse escaped from the trailer and made it to the median before trying to cross the freeway. A black Honda Accord then “clipped” the animal, per the outlet, before the horse crashed into the victims’ car’s windshield.

“The horse was also a fatality, unfortunately,” Riverside County Fire Department spokeswoman Maggie Cline De La Rosa told the Los Angeles Times.

Per the Associated Press, the trailer crash sparked a series of crashes on the highway, including an accident where a semitractor-trailer hit the empty horse carrier.

Navarro and CAL FIRE / Riverside County Fire Department didn’t immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE. The victim has not yet been identified.

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Per the Los Angeles Times, the person taken to hospital with “minor injuries” was the 27-year-old male driver of the Honda Accord.

Navarro told the outlet that no one had been arrested and what caused the car carrying the horse trailer to veer off the road remains under investigation.