Four Weekend Accidents Claim 7 Lives

Seven people died in four separate traffic accidents on San Diego County roads Saturday night and Sunday morning in what public safety officials described as an extraordinary 12-hour string of fatalities.

In one case, two 15-year-old boys died in an accident that police blame on a driver being held on suspicion of drunk driving. In another, five women believed to be Mexican nuns were injured when a tire on station wagon in which they were passengers had a blow out and the car overturned.

“Oh yes, yesterday was a keeper. Don’t ask me what’s going on,” commented a California Highway Patrol official. Deputy San Diego County Coroner Everett Mauger called it “a very aggressive weekend.”

The accidents began at 8:30 p.m. Saturday when a car traveling as fast as 90 m.p.h. hit the concrete center barrier on Interstate 5 at Iris Avenue, flew 71 feet through the air, hit a concrete overpass support structure, and crashed on top of the center barrier, CHP spokesman Pam Richardson said.

The driver and one passenger died in the accident, but neither the CHP nor the coroner’s office released their identities Sunday afternoon. A second passenger, identified as Kevin Dale, was taken to University Hospital. Dale was in surgery late Sunday, hospital officials said.

Two and a half hours later, a small car traveling south on Interstate 805 at speeds topping 70 m.p.h. veered onto the shoulder near Balboa Avenue, struck an abandoned car, and burst into flames.

The driver, who died in the fire, was identified by Mauger as Steven Paul Herzog, a Grossmont College student living in San Diego. Mauger said the identification is 95 to 99 percent certain, but the coroner’s office planned to check it with dental records.

Just a half hour later, at 11:30 p.m., a motorcyclist on California 188 south of California 94 in Tecate lost control, ran off the road and flipped over in a ditch, said Richardson. The motorcyclist suffered head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

However, his identity was not released Sunday because his mother had not been notified, Richardson and Mauger said. They described him as a 20-year-old Navy man, believed to have been drinking.

Two hours after that, at 1:30 a.m., Michael Anthony Andreas and Jude Travino, both 15 years old and from Valley Center, died when the car in which they were riding as passengers on Vesper Road east of Valley Center Road hit a telephone pole, flew into the air, cleared a six-foot tree and overturned on a pile of boulders, Richardson said.

The driver, identified as Gerardo V. Villalobos, 21, of Valley Center,

was slightly injured and remained in CHP custody, Richardson said, on suspicion of felony drunk driving.

A third passenger, who Richardson said is believed to be Eduardo Hernandez, of unknown address, was taken to Palomar Hospital with major injuries. No details on his condition were available Sunday.

Finally, shortly after 9 a.m. Sunday, a 46-year-old Baja California woman died on Interstate 8 in Jacumba when the station wagon she was driving suffered a blowout, veered off the highway, and overturned, the CHP reported.

Lucretia Pelayo-Toscano, of Mexicali, was pronounced dead at the scene, Richardson said. Five passengers in the car, believed to be nuns from Mexicali, were hospitalized with serious injuries at Scripps Medical Center in La Jolla and University Hospital.

A spokeswoman for Scripps said three of the women were listed there in stable condition late Sunday. University Hospital was unable to provide information about the other two.

According to Richardson and Deputy Coroner William Leard, the five passengers were pinned in the car, forcing the police had to cut off the top of the station wagon to free them.