Speed is being blamed for a single-vehicle crash in Twentynine Palms that killed a Hemet man and an Ontario woman Saturday. The California Highway Patrol said Yovonne Marie Navarrette, 49, passed a vehicle traveling westbound in front of her on Indian Trail at a high rate of speed. As she passed the vehicle just east of Pearl Springs Avenue, approaching traffic from the opposite direction caused her to brake abruptly, and she lost control of her 1999 Ford Explorer. The Explorer spun out of control and struck the asphalt berm on the south side of the road and overturned several times into the open desert. Navarrette and her front seat passenger, David Edgar Garduno, 21, were not wearing their seatbelts and were thrown from the vehicle. Navarrete was pronounced deceased at the scene by Morongo Basin Ambulance; Garduno was taken by MBA to Hi-Desert Medical Center where he died. Yvette Meza and her son, who were wearing their seatbelts in the back seat, received minor injuries and were taken to Desert Hospital in Palm Springs. The California Highway Patrol reminds residents that seatbelts save lives.
