Sports car driver dies in fiery crash near Fairbanks Ranch Country Club

A 27-year-old man, David Van Vliet, died Tuesday, Nov. 17, after his sports car crashed into other vehicles at high speed and burst into flames on a winding road near Fairbanks Ranch Country Club, San Diego police said.

Officers found the McLaren F1 on fire, with the driver trapped inside. San Diego firefighters put out the flames, but the driver died in the wreckage, police Lt. Duane Voss said.

The driver’s name was not released.

He was heading west on San Dieguito Road about 12:30 p.m. when he crossed double yellow lines to pass another vehicle on the two-lane road, Voss said. While making the pass, the driver of the sports car side-swiped the other westbound vehicle and lost control.

The car then struck an eastbound vehicle, and the impact caused the car to spin. An eastbound box truck then T-boned the car.

Video shot by OnScene TV showed what appeared to be a gray McLaren mangled and blackened on the side of the road in front of a furniture delivery box truck.

“The truck, which was traveling probably at road speed here — maybe 40 mph or whatever it is — coming down the grade here, probably didn’t even see the (sports car) because of the curves prior to the impact, so you figure that’s probably some pretty good speeds involved,” Voss told OnScene TV.

Voss said a passenger in the truck suffered a knee injury.
— David Hernandez is a reporter for The San Diego Union-Tribune