Drunk-Driving Suspect Held in Deaths of 2 in Oceanside Collision

A pair of stable hands from the San Luis Rey Downs thoroughbred training center were killed and a friend was injured when their car was struck head-on by a suspected drunk driver in Oceanside.

Police said Cynthia Hawkins, 18, and David del Valle, 23, died of multiple injuries they suffered in the 10:30 p.m. accident Monday along a lonely stretch of Mission Avenue near Guajome Lake.

A third passenger in the car, Todd Mongenel, 16, suffered minor injuries and was treated at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The driver of the truck that hit their car, Don White, 36, of Murrieta in Riverside County, was transported by Life Flight to Palomar Hospital, where he remained in intensive care Tuesday. White was booked on suspicion of felony drunk driving and two counts of vehicular manslaughter.

Friends of Hawkins, Del Valle and Mongenel at San Luis Rey Downs expressed dismay over the accident. All three had worked at the training center for only a short time, but were well-liked, said Dagmar Sykora, an assistant trainer at the facility.

Hawkins, of San Marcos, and Mongenel, who was raised in the Los Angeles area, served as “hot walkers,” the stable hands who walk the prize thoroughbreds to warm them up before a workout and cool them down afterward. In addition, Mongenel is training to become an exercise rider, Sykora said.

Del Valle was a native of New Jersey who had worked as a stable hand at an East Coast race track before traveling west to become a groom, first at Del Mar, later at San Luis Rey Downs.

“They were all very personable,” Sykora said. “And they all had one strong bond--they really liked horses.”

Their car was eastbound on Mission Avenue just past North Santa Fe Road when White’s truck swerved across the double-yellow line and smacked into it, police said. The impact sent the car careening on its side into a creek next to the roadway, according to Officer Bob George of the Oceanside Police Department.