Drug Possibly Found in Truck That Triggered Fatal Pileup

The truck driver who rammed a van, causing a pileup near San Clemente that left three dead and 22 injured, was driving with a suspended license and had a substance suspected of being cocaine in his rig, authorities said Friday.

A third victim died Friday. Authorities said he was about to be released from the hospital after being treated for minor injuries when he suffered a fatal heart attack. It was not clear if his death could be attributed to the accident.

Investigators found a “white powdery substance” in “one bindle, one baggie and one plastic vial” after the crash at 6:45 p.m. Thursday on northbound Interstate 5, just south of the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint.

“If it is indeed cocaine, it would be considered a very sizable quantity,” California Highway Patrol Officer Jerry Bohrer said. Laboratory tests were pending.

Eight Tickets

Truck driver Neil Adams, 33, of Campbell, in Santa Clara County, whose record showed eight motor vehicle citations since 1983, was held on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, felony drunk driving and possession of cocaine at the San Diego County branch jail in Vista.

“It was miraculous that nobody else was hit or killed,” Bohrer said Friday. “It could have been so much worse.”

The three people who died and 19 of those injured were Dutch citizens, part of a group that included Dutch singers and musicians staying at a Buena Park motel. They had arrived in Los Angeles Tuesday for two weeks of sightseeing and performing.

The group, some of whom had been stars in the 1950s and 1960s in the Netherlands, were booked for performances at the Gateway Plaza Holiday Inn in La Mirada on Sunday and in Inglewood on Oct. 4. They were scheduled to fly back to the Netherlands on Oct. 6. The shows were canceled Friday.

Broken Necks

Wonny Wooft, 28, and Wiem Jansan, in his late 20s, were killed when Adams’ truck struck their van. Both were sitting in the back seats and both suffered broken necks, Bohrer said.

Jof Richares, 48, of the Dutch city of Beets, died Friday of a heart attack.

Adams reportedly was returning from a San Diego Navy base, where he had delivered a load of freight.

A spokesman for Adams’ employer, Rod’s Trucking Co. of South Gate, said Friday that the company would have no comment on the accident.

Adams’ bail was set at $10,000. He will be arraigned Monday in Vista Municipal Court.

Times staff writers Bob Schwartz, Richard Beene, Mariann Hansen and Martha Steffens contributed to this report.