San Juan Capistrano : Boy Dies After Crashing Car Believed to Be Stolen
A 17-year-old San Clemente boy reportedly driving a stolen car was killed early Tuesday morning during a high-speed chase with a California Highway Patrol officer, the Sheriff’s Department said.
The teen-ager died when he crashed a 1986 Mustang through a metal barrier on a dead-end road and rolled down a steep embankment, Sheriff’s Lt. Dick Olson said.
An officer had seen the driver weaving northbound without lights on Coast Highway about 2:15 a.m., Olson said.
The driver had stopped at a gas station at Del Obispo Street and Coast Highway, but when he saw the CHP car he sped away, going south in a northbound lane on Coast Highway for a while before moving into the southbound lane, Olson said.
The chase continued at speeds up to 80 m.p.h. The Mustang crashed through a barrier at the end of Camino Las Ramblas, and the youth, whose name was withheld because of his age, died at the scene.
San Clemente police said the car had been reported stolen.
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