Laguna Niguel : 2 Hospitalized as 5 Cars Crash in Chain-Reaction

Two people remained hospitalized Monday after a five-car collision involving a California Highway Patrol cruiser on Interstate 5.

Lawrence R. Graham Jr. and Sheila Valencia, both 21-year-old residents of San Juan Capistrano, were listed in fair condition Monday in the intensive care unit at Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo, a hospital spokeswoman said.

They were heading south on I-5 near Crown Valley Parkway early Saturday morning when Graham’s Volkswagen slammed into a 1951 Packard, which was blocking the freeway’s middle lanes, said Officer Ken Daily, a Highway Patrol spokesman.

Another car then crashed into the Packard and Volkswagen. Its driver, Craig G. Visser, 19, of Vista was treated for mouth and knee injuries, and released from Mission Community Hospital.

The Packard was stopped in the middle of the freeway because it had just bounced off a Highway Patrol car, which was parked on the right shoulder while two officers administered a drunk-driving test to a driver they had stopped.

Neither the officers nor the drunk-driving suspect was injured, but the Packard’s impact pushed the patrol car forward into the stopped car, Daily said.

Highway Patrol Sgt. Bill Sonka and Officer Rick Sablan decided the driver they had originally stopped was not drunk and arrested the Packard’s driver instead.

That driver, Joseph A. Mallotto, 23, of Huntington Beach was treated at the scene for cuts and bruises, then booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of felony drunk driving, Daily said. He remained in custody Monday, in lieu of $10,000 bail.