Costa Mesa

Motorcyclist Crashes: A speeding motorcyclist who was not wearing a helmet crashed into a telephone pole early Tuesday and died almost instantly, police said. The victim, Mark Charles Bell, 23, of Costa Mesa, was traveling north on Newport Boulevard about 1:20 a.m. when he lost control of his motorcycle on a curve, Police Lt. John Moquin said. Bell had turned onto an access road leading to Fairview Road, Moquin said, when the motorcycle struck a curb and smashed into the pole. Paramedics pronounced the man dead at the scene.