Bicyclist is killed by alleged drunk driver
A bicyclist was killed early Monday in Dana Point when a car driven by a woman with a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit jumped a curb and hit him, authorities said.
Jose Umberto Barranco, 32, of Dana Point was on the sidewalk during his nightly 3-mile ride home from Denny’s, where he had worked as a busboy for seven years. He was struck from behind on Del Obispo Street at Quail Run, family members said.
The driver, Michelle Stearns, 26, of San Juan Capistrano, was heading north on Del Obispo when she lost control of her car at 1:56 a.m., said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
After hitting Barranco, the car careened into a power pole and knocked out electricity to nearby businesses and homes.
Traffic was backed up because the outage affected traffic signals on Del Obispo, a major thoroughfare in south Orange County.
Stearns was arrested on suspicion of felony drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter, Amormino said.
Barranco had planned to spend Christmas with his wife, 13-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter in the central Mexican state of Morelos, family members said. He hadn’t seen them in nearly two years, they said.
“It’s not fair that, because of a drunk driver, there is a family without a father,” said his sister, Patricia Barranco Patino.
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