5 Others Are Seriously Injured : County Road Crashes Kill 3

Three people were killed and at least five others were seriously injured in five unrelated accidents on Orange County streets and highways in a 24-hour period ending Friday evening.

One person was killed and three were injured Thursday evening when a man suspected of drunk driving drove through a stop sign and collided with another car in San Juan Capistrano.

William F. Clemons, 63, of Laguna Niguel, the driver of the car that was hit, went into full cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead in the emergency room at Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo, hospital spokeswoman Jan Walker said.

Thomas Crotty, 18, the other driver, was eastbound on Alicia Parkway at 6:20 p.m. when he ran the stop sign and collided with Clemons’ car, which was northbound on Niguel Road, California Highway Patrol Officer Alvin Wamaguchi said.

After being treated for facial lacerations at Mission Community Hospital, Crotty was booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of felony drunk driving and felony vehicular manslaughter.

Crotty’s two passengers suffered minor to moderate injuries. Sean Simko, 15, of Laguna Hills was reported in stable condition Friday at Mission Community Hospital. Angelo Barsotti, 14, also of Laguna Hills, suffered a head injury and also was reported in stable condition.

Just before 9 a.m. Friday, Vita Otto, 64, of Las Vegas was killed when the car in which she was riding was involved in a three-vehicle accident in Santa Ana.

According to Santa Ana police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas, the accident occurred when the Chevrolet driven by Frederick Otto, 71, the victim’s husband, entered the intersection of Hazard Avenue and Newhope Street. As the Ottos’ car turned onto Newhope, it collided with a Mazda driven by Antonio Perri, 29, of Santa Rosa.

The Ottos’ car was then hit broadside by a commercial truck driven by Michael Allen Colby, 30, of Santa Ana, Thomas said.

Vita Otto was pronounced dead at the scene and Fredrick Otto and Perri were taken to Fountain Valley Regional Hospital where officials Friday night reported Otto in critical condition in the intensive care unit and Perri in serious but stable condition.

No one was cited in the incident, Thomas said, but an investigation is continuing.

Less than an hour later, on the southbound transition road from the Costa Mesa Freeway to the Corona del Mar Freeway in Costa Mesa, a BMW driven by Elmer Santo De Leon, 19, of Santa Ana collided with a Cadillac driven by Ronald Oshiro, 41, of Rowland Heights. Neither driver was injured nor cited, according to CHP Officer Paul Caldwell, but that incident also is under investigation.

Later Friday, Gloria Harriett Garver, 45, of Fountain Valley was fatally injured when the southbound car she was driving swerved into the center divider on the San Diego Freeway just north of Bear Street.

The top of her 1981 Corvette was sheared off by the divider cable, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Corky Elliot, and Garver was trapped in the vehicle. Rescue personnel had to cut the divider cable and use power equipment to free her from the car.

“The paramedics did a hell of a good job,” Elliot said, “but her injuries were so traumatic that she died at Fountain Valley Hospital.”

Elliot said the Corvette was traveling at an unsafe rate of speed when Garver attempted to stop and the brakes locked. The officer said that he was investigating his third accident of the day and added that radio traffic indicated that there had been an unusually high number of automobile accidents throughout the day.

Sometime before sunset, a Ford Fiesta left Imperial Highway at Kellogg Drive in Anaheim and rolled over an embankment. According to witnesses, the driver crawled out of the car and returned to the highway, where he got into a second car and fled the scene. The CHP is investigating.