Santa Ana : Bicyclist, 20, Struck, Killed by Hit-Run Driver

A 20-year-old man cycling along West Coast Highway in west Newport Beach just after midnight Monday was struck from behind and killed by a hit-and-run driver, Newport Beach police said.

Shortly afterward, police stopped a man in Fountain Valley suspected of drunk driving and arrested him on suspicion of being the hit-and-run driver, Newport police said.

Officers said they found signs of fresh damage to the driver’s small pickup truck that indicated it could have been the vehicle involved.

A coroner’s spokesman identified the victim as Joseph Howe of Huntington Beach, who he said died of “severe head trauma.”

Police said Howe was thrown off his bike and onto the vehicle, where his head slammed against the part of the metal roof that joins the top of the windshield. They said it appeared that Howe had not been wearing a helmet. He was carried about 100 feet before falling off the vehicle, officers said.

They said they were unsure whether his bicycle was lighted or had reflectors.

Police identified the suspect as Steven T. Chase, 30, of Fountain Valley. He was booked into Newport Beach City Jail on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and was released on $25,000 bail, officers said.

Lt. Jim Jacobs of the Newport Beach police traffic services division said Howe was traveling on the paved shoulder of West Coast Highway just west of Superior Avenue. He was about eight feet outside the car lane when struck, Jacobs said.

Jacobs said there is a separate, paved bicycle trail about 15 off the highway that Howe could have been using. “There really isn’t room for a bike there (on the highway),” he said.