Authorities over the weekend identified the skateboarder who died in a collision with a dump truck as 20-year-old Eric Pederson of Clayton, California.

The California Highway Patrol says Pederson was skating downhill at more than 20 miles per hour on Glendora Mountain Road south of East Fork Road in the Angeles National Forest when he “fell” and collided with a 2000 Freightliner three-axle dump truck.

According to a CHP statement, Pederson “approached a sweeping right curve in the roadway” but “failed to remain in his lane” and “crossed a center line onto opposing traffic.”

“He subsequently struck the undercarriage of the dump truck,” the report says.

It happened about 9:40 a.m. Friday, CHP officials said. 

U.S. Forest Service personnel were quickly on-scene but couldn't revive Pederson, according to the CHP. Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics declared him dead at the scene.

First responders noted that the skater sustained “blunt force trauma,” according to the CHP, and the L.A. County Department of the Coroner determined that Pederson had indeed perished as a result of “multiple traumatic injuries,” a coroner's investigator told us.


The driver of the truck, which was determined to have been going about 20 miles per hour uphill, was not cited.

Pederson had been riding with a group of friends, CHP officials said.

The skater was known for his enthusiasm for downhill rides and was an administrator for a Facebook group dedicated to student longboarders at UC Irvine.

Friends and supporters held a vigil in his memory last night. “Eric will be missed deeply by all,” one friend said via Facebook.

UC Irvine confirmed for us that a man with Pederson's name and date of birth attended the university.


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