Laguna Beach : Driver Dies Attempting Illegal Highway U-Turn
A 68-year-old driver was killed Monday when he tried to make an illegal U-turn from the shoulder of Coast Highway near Laguna Beach and was broadsided, the California Highway Patrol said.
Richard Harrison, a resident of the Big Bear Lake area, was declared dead at the scene of the 4:35 p.m. accident just north of the Laguna city limits, CHP Officer Lupy Lopez said.
He said a passenger in the car, Wilma Harrison, 65, of Big Bear Lake, remained in stable condition Tuesday at Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo. CHP Officer Ken Daily said Wilma Harrison, who suffered internal injuries and a fractured left leg, arm and hand, was transported to the hospital by U.S. Marine Corps helicopter.
The relationship between the driver and passenger was not known, Daily and Lopez said.
Richard Harrison was traveling north on the four-lane Coast Highway near Morro Canyon when he pulled to the shoulder and started to make a U-turn to enter the southbound lanes, Lopez said.
Daily said a 21-year-old Newport Beach man traveling north at the posted speed limit, 55 m.p.h., stepped on his brakes and tried to swerve to avoid the car, but struck the left side of Harrison’s vehicle.
That driver was treated for minor injuries at South Coast Medical Center in South Laguna, Lopez said.
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