3 Killed When Driver of Stolen Car Hits Pickup During Police Chase

Driving more than 100 m.p.h., a 25-year-old man led Fullerton police on a chase through two counties that ended Saturday when he broadsided a pickup, triggering a series of collisions that killed him and two others and injured several people.

The tragedy began when police tried to stop a 1978 Datsun 280Z they had spotted weaving southbound on Harbor Boulevard in Fullerton, police said. When officers approached, the red sports car sped off, barreling west through northwest Orange County and into Los Angeles County.

After fleeing from police for eight miles, the driver ran a red light at Del Amo and Pioneer boulevards in Lakewood, east of the 605 Freeway, at 12:20 a.m. and smashed into the Toyota pickup, which in turn hit two other cars.

Fullerton police said they found three pounds of narcotics and several sets of license plates in the Datsun, which had been reported stolen last week in Fullerton.

The driver, Craig S. Saunders of Buena Park, died at the scene. Michael Griswold, 26, of Norwalk, was killed when the pickup hit his Volkswagen Rabbit, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.

A 34-year-old man who was a passenger in the pickup also was killed, but his name was not released pending notification to his relatives.

The driver of the pickup and a passenger in the Volkswagen were seriously injured. One was taken to Memorial Medical Center of Long Beach, the other to Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital of Whittier.

Their names were not released, but both were in critical condition Saturday night, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Dinsmoor said.

A fourth driver, Inez Toland, 60, of Lakewood, suffered bruises when the spinning pickup grazed her car, Dinsmoor said.

“When everything hit, it was less than half a second. It was like that,” said Kevin Blackwell, who said he saw the wreck from the fast-food restaurant where he works. Moments after the Datsun hit the pickup, Blackwell said, six police cars pulled up.

“Before they even looked at the other cars, they all pulled their guns and pointed them (at the Datsun),” Blackwell said.

Officers from Fullerton, Buena Park, La Palma and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department had joined the chase, which was directed from the air by an Anaheim police helicopter.

Police would not specify the type of drugs found in the Datsun.

Authorities said the car had been reported stolen Oct. 26 from a parking lot in Fullerton where commuters park their cars and catch buses to Los Angeles County.

Times staff writer Danny Sullivan contributed to this story.