Local News in Brief : Laguna Beach : 2 Hurt, 1 Arrested in Vehicular Violence

Two men were thrown from the open back end of a truck when the vehicle was run off the road by a car in Laguna Beach, police said Monday.

The drivers of the truck and the car were using their cars in an “altercation” along the street and eventually collided, Police Sgt. Don Barney said.

The driver of the car, Antonia Gonzalez Lopez, 24, of Costa Mesa, was arrested on suspicion of felony drunk driving and felony hit and run, Barney said.

There also was a warrant out on him on a previous drunk-driving charge, he said.

The incident occurred about 9 p.m. Sunday near Cliff Drive and Beach Street, when the car’s driver ran the stake-bed truck off the road as it was eastbound on Cliff Drive, forcing it to crash into several parked cars, Barney said.

The crash threw the two passengers off the truck and onto the street and also tore away the stake-bed part of the truck, he said.

The truck’s driver then tried to overtake Lopez’s car, and the vehicles collided again 100 yards away from the first crash, he said. Lopez fled that crash, but was arrested nearby, Barney said.

The two truck passengers were taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo with “minor trauma,” said Barney, who did not have their names.