San Onofre

Drunk driving is suspected as the cause of a three-car accident early Thursday near Camp Pendleton that left one person dead and another injured, authorities said.

The 30-year-old dead man’s name was not released pending notification of relatives, said California Highway Patrol Officer Tom Kerns.

Jesus Rodriguez Rojas, 30, was being held in County Jail at Vista after being captured by U.S. Border Patrol agents as he tried to flee the scene, Kerns said. He was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving, hit and run, manslaughter and of being an unlicensed driver. Rodriguez, of Jalisco, Mexico, was being held in lieu of $10,117 bail.

Kerns said Rodriguez was driving south on Interstate 5 at 4:20 a.m. when he rear-ended a car with his pickup truck about a mile south of Basilone Road. The car swerved into the center divider, hit a steel-cable fence and flipped over, landing upside-down in the northbound lanes of the interstate.

Another car, traveling north, plowed into the car. That driver, Martin Rodney Vanasch, 25, of Alta Loma, Calif., was taken to Samaritan Medical Center in San Clemente, where he was treated for minor injuries and released, a hospital spokeswoman said. The driver of the first car was pronounced dead at the scene.

Kerns said Rodriguez continued driving, then stopped about a mile down the highway to abandon the pickup and flee on foot. Border Patrol agents caught him as he tried to run across the highway, Kerns said.