Bruce Jenner involved in chain-reaction car crash that kills one

LOS ANGELES – Former Olympian Bruce Jenner was a driver in a multi-vehicle crash Saturday on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu that left one person dead and five injured, authorities said.

A 2-mile stretch of the highway was closed for hours in both directions near Corral Canyon Road after the crash occurred shortly after noon.

Jenner, whose apparent transition from male to female has drawn intense media coverage in recent days, was being followed by paparazzi when the collision occurred, but it’s doubtful he was trying to outrun them, L.A. County Sheriff’s Sgt. Philip Brooks said.

Brooks described a chain reaction involving four cars:

A woman driving north in a Toyota Prius slowed down or stopped for reasons that were unclear. An elderly woman driving a Lexus sedan rear-ended the Prius.

Jenner, who was driving a black Cadillac Escalade sport utility vehicle that was hauling a trailer carrying an off-road vehicle, then rear-ended the Lexus.

The impact propelled the Lexus into oncoming traffic, where a Hummer traveling south slammed into it. The driver of the Lexus, whom authorities declined to identify, died at the scene. Both the front and rear ends of the Lexus were severely damaged.

After the crash, a swelling crowd of onlookers and paparazzi led rescuers to call in reinforcements to manage the scene.

“It was a nightmare,” Brooks said.

Several guests at the nearby Malibu Beach RV Park walked to the crash site and watched as authorities pulled the woman’s body from the mangled remains of the Lexus.

Photos on the celebrity gossip website TMZ showed Jenner, in sunglasses and a baseball cap, surveying the wreckage. Three photos showed the moment of impact when he rear-ended the Lexus.

Jenner passed a field sobriety test and took a blood-alcohol test, Brooks said. The results were not immediately available. Investigators plan to examine his mobile phone records to see whether he was using his phone when the crash occurred.

Jenner spokesman Alan Nierob declined to discuss what happened.

“I really don’t have any details relating to this accident other than confirming (that) my client was uninjured,” Nierob said in an email.

Five children were injured in the wreck, none seriously, said Lt. Jennifer Seetoo, watch commander of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station in Agoura.

Jenner, who won a gold medal in the decathlon in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, has been in the public eye for decades. His image appeared on the Wheaties cereal box, and he pursued a career as an actor, appearing recently on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” E!’s reality-TV hit.

Public interest in – and paparazzi attention on – Jenner has spiked in recent days as long-running rumors that he would be transitioning from male to female seemed to be confirmed.

People magazine put him on its cover with a story confirming the transgender plans through unnamed sources. His mother, Esther Jenner, talked to some media outlets and, without getting specific, said she was prouder of him now than she was when he won his gold medal.

An interview with Diane Sawyer and Bruce Jenner is said to be in the works, along with a docu-series chronicling Jenner’s transition.

Jenner and his wife of 22 years, Kris Jenner, announced in October that they were splitting up. They settled their divorce in December.

Last month, Kim Kardashian told “Entertainment Tonight,” “I think Bruce should tell his story his way … I think everyone goes through things in life and I think that story and what Bruce is going through, I think he’ll share whenever the time is right.”

Like Esther Jenner, she gave no specifics.