Mission Viejo : Man Killed as Vehicle Overturns at School

A 20-year-old man was killed early Tuesday, and the teen-age driver of a vehicle that overturned on a Mission Viejo school ground was booked on charges of manslaughter and felony drunk driving, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.

Officer Ken Daily said the victim was identified as David Michael Besse of Mission Viejo, who was trapped under the four-wheel-drive vehicle and died at the scene.

The 17-year-old driver, whose name was withheld because of his age, and three other passengers, including the dead man’s sister, escaped injury.

Daily said the driver had been “spinning doughnuts”--skidding in circles--on the damp grass of the playing field at Fred Newhart Elementary School, La Paz Road and Marguerite Parkway about 1 a.m. Tuesday. When the driver attempted to leave the field by negotiating an embankment, the Ford Bronco overturned.

An off-duty Anaheim fireman, Bob Greathead, who lives nearby, freed the victim and attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but the man was pronounced dead when paramedics arrived.