The Marine killed in a head-on collision in Joshua Tree early Wednesday morning has been identified. First Lieutenant Todd Lorell, 24, a logistics officer with 7th Marines at the Combat Center, was driving his silver 2000 Honda Civic about 80 miles per hour westbound on Highway 62, east of Rotary Way at 2:50 a.m., when his car veered across all four lanes of the highway and crashed into the front of a 2011 Freightliner semi tractor trailer being driven eastbound on the highway at about 55 miles per hour. Lorell, who is from Los Altos, was killed instantly; the driver of the semi, a 50-year-old man from Glendale, Arizona, was transported to Hi-Desert Medical Center for complaints of pain. It’s believed that Lieutenant Todd Lorell fell asleep while driving. The accident caused the big rig to jack knife across the highway; the highway was closed in both directions for about five hours, and traffic was diverted along primitive dirt roads south of the highway, causing delays of up to an hour.
