4 Killed as Wrong-Way Driver Hits Oncoming Car on Orange Freeway

A wrong-way driver traveling about 75 m.p.h. slammed into another car on the Orange (57) Freeway in Anaheim Sunday morning, killing himself and a Hacienda Heights couple and their elderly passenger in the second vehicle, authorities said.

The driver, a male, was going the wrong way on the freeway at 9:20 a.m. when his late model Chevrolet Celebrity hit an Oldsmobile, which was traveling south, near Anaheim Stadium, California Highway Patrol spokesman Paul Caldwell said. The accident occurred about a quarter of a mile north of Katella Avenue.

The driver of the Oldsmobile--identified as Mrs. Joics (Gene) Stone, 67, of Hacienda Heights--was killed instantly, along with Ida Holt, 89, of Long Beach, who was a passenger in the back seat, authorities said. Mrs. Stone’s 60-year-old husband, who was a passenger in the front seat, was pronounced dead on arrival at UCI Medical Center in the city of Orange.

The name of the wrong-way driver, identified only as a 32-year-old Orange County resident, was being withheld until relatives could be notified.

A witness told CHP investigators that the Chevrolet narrowly missed hitting another car before careening head-on into the Oldsmobile, which was traveling about 60 m.p.h., Caldwell said.

“There were no skid marks, and it appears neither car was slowing down at the moment of impact,” he said.

“I’ll tell you, this was about the worst accident I’ve ever seen,” Caldwell said at the scene of the crash.

The accident forced closure of the freeway’s southbound lanes for 4 1/2 hours to allow CHP investigators to reconstruct the accident and remove the smashed and twisted wreckage.

The two vehicles were so badly mangled that it took a team of eight firefighters from the Anaheim Fire Department, using a mechanical prying device, about an hour to extract the bodies of the two drivers. The Chevrolet’s roof had to be cut off before the driver’s body could be removed.

Another driver traveling behind the Oldsmobile had to swerve to avoid hitting it after the high-impact collision. Caldwell said Mark Ellis Huntsinger, 28, of Walnut, merely clipped the back of the Oldsmobile before he veered into the concrete center divider.

Huntsinger, who provided investigators with details of the accident, was not injured, Caldwell said.

Light traffic on the freeway at the time of the accident was cited by witnesses and CHP officers as the reason more vehicles were not involved in the wreck.

An investigation was continuing, and Caldwell said an autopsy and toxicological tests are pending to determine whether the wrong-way driver was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the crash.