1 Child Dead, 1 Injured in Separate Hit-Run Accidents

One child died Saturday and another was critically injured by hit-and-run drivers within 24 hours, police said Saturday.

Brianna Tamplin, 3, of Anaheim was walking north across the 2200 block of East Ball Road in Anaheim about 6 p.m. Friday with her mother and grandmother when a motorcycle struck the girl, Police Sgt. Chet Berry said. The driver fled.

The girl was treated at the scene by paramedics and then transferred to UCI Medical Center, where she died, police said.

Police described the motorcyclist as white, about 25 years old, 5-feet-10 to 6 feet, thin to medium build, with brown, shoulder-length hair parted in the middle, a mustache and several days’ growth of beard. He was wearing blue denim jeans and matching jacket.

In the second accident, 6-year-old Christopher Munoz was struck by a car allegedly driven by Berger S. T. Lau, 40, of Huntington Beach in an alley behind the child’s grandmother’s house in Costa Mesa.

He was in critical condition Saturday night at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital.

Costa Mesa police arrested Lau a block from the accident at Hang Chow Restaurant, where he works part time, Costa Mesa Traffic Officer Steven Rautus said.

The child’s cousin, Rob Ayres, 21, and his girlfriend, Kathy Kirkham, 22, both of Costa Mesa, witnessed the accident.

Kirkham said Christopher was running from behind an ice cream truck behind the 700 block of West 20th Street when the 1981 white Datsun B-210 station wagon struck him.

Ayres, who was working on Kirkham’s car, heard her scream. He said he looked up and saw the car hit Christopher.

Ayres said the driver “didn’t even hit his breaks.” Ayres said he chased the driver, reached into the car and tried to grab the keys. He also struck Lau several times, he said.

“I . . . tried to take the keys away. He was trying to leave and there was no way to stop him except to hit him.”

Ayres and Kirkham said that when they caught up to him, Lau claimed he was leaving to “go call.”

After the accident, “I realized the guy’s engine wasn’t off,” Kirkham said. “He wasn’t gonna stop.” Ayres estimated that the car’s speed when it hit the child was “at least 45 m.p.h.”

Rautus said Lau was taken to Costa Mesa Medical Center but suffered from “nothing more than contusions.”

Lau was arrested on suspicion of hit-and-run driving, but police had been unable to interview him by Saturday night because he apparently does not understand English.

“We’re looking for an interpreter,” Rautus said.