Changes Planned For Deadly Intersection; Victim Of Thousand Palms Crash Identified

Some changes will be made to a dangerous Thousand Palms intersection. The Riverside County Transportation Department decided weeks ago to make the changes next Monday. A family says the changes come 5 days too late. Ophelia Porter, 84, died in a car crash Tuesday at the intersection.

Crews will install a right turn lane on Varner for drivers turning onto Boca Chica Trail. A new merging lane will allow drivers turning onto Varner from Boca Chica Trail a safer entrance onto the 55MPH road. Tall plastic post will be placed in order to move the stop sign up closer to the street to get rid of the blind spot made by a wall. But still no stop light.

The Thousand Palms resident was pronounced dead at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Boca Chica Trail and Varner Road, according to the Riverside County Coroner’s Office.

Porter was southbound on Boca Chica Trail around 12:45 p.m. when she stopped at a stop sign, then turned onto Varner Road and into the path of a 1999 pickup truck, California Highway Patrol Officer John Quintero said.

The 28-year-old driver of the Ford F-150 tried to stop, but the truck slammed into the left side of the woman’s 2007 Saturn Ion, Quintero said.

The driver of the truck, a Desert Hot Springs man, suffered an arm fracture and his passenger, a 22-year-old woman, complained of pain in the ribcage area, Quintero said.

They were taken to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs.