ANAHEIM – A passenger in a vehicle driven by a woman who was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving died at a hospital early Sunday morning after the pickup they were in hit a car, went onto a dirt embankment and overturned “several” times, California Highway Patrol officials said.
The accident happened at about 12:45 a.m. on the southbound I-5 freeway near Disneyland Drive in Anaheim.
The male passenger, 28, died at 4:15 a.m. at UCI Medical Center in Orange. The female driver, also 28, was arrested on suspicion of felony driving under the influence and remains in custody at the same hospital, where she is being treated for major injuries, the incident report said.
The driver and passenger in the car were taken to Western Medical Center with moderate and minor injuries.
The CHP report says the driver of the 2002 GMC pickup was driving in the third lane “at a high rate of speed.” For unknown reasons, she changed lanes to the fourth lane and struck the left rear corner of the 1995 Mercury Villager, then continued west, where the truck “skidded off” the main lanes and traveled “out of control” onto a steep dirt embankment. The truck then struck part of a bridge and made “several rotations” back across the southbound lanes, where it came to rest in the first lane, the report says.
The CHP did not release the name of the passenger or the driver.
This fatal car accident is a tragedy that could have and should have not happened.
By now everyone knows how dangerous it is to drink and drive. It is almost like playing with a loaded gun, and there is flat out no excuse for drinking and driving.
No one should drink and drive under any circumstances, because like what happened here, they could kill someone.
In this case one person lost their life, and the woman who was arrested life will never be the same either; all for the sake of a drink.
Whatever you do, do not get in the car with someone you know has been drinking alcohol.
Anaheim Car Accident Attorney Website
The Kern County Coroner’s Office has identified James T. Kelly, 69, of Lake Isabella, as the person struck by a pickup truck Friday evening about 6:30 p.m., when, according to witnesses, he attempted to cross Lake Isabella Blvd. in his motorized wheelchair.
Three people were killed in a head-on crash Wednesday afternoon on Highway 46 north of Bakersfield. Friday, four people were killed in an accident on the same highway.