Driver Who Caused Multiple-Fatality Crash Was Drunk

A driver who veered into oncoming traffic on California 126 outside Fillmore on Thanksgiving Day, killing five people, himself and a fetus, was legally drunk, according to test results released Friday by the California Highway Patrol.

Frank R. Shoults, 43, of Thousand Oaks, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.22%--more than twice the legal limit for motorists, according to a patrol spokesman.

Shoults, an engineer for the Calleguas Municipal Water District in Thousand Oaks, was bound for a family reunion in Valencia when his pickup truck swerved into a car driven by Magdaleno Correa, 27, of Santa Ana, at 10:15 a.m. on Nov. 24.

Correa and his passengers--his wife, Eva Correa, 28; his brother, Fernando Correa, 20, of Costa Mesa; Saul de la Cueva, 23, of Irvine, and Francisco Meija, 34, of Santa Ana--died. The CHP lists seven fatalities in the collision because Mrs. Correa was five months pregnant at the time.

The group, who all had moved to the United States from San Juan/El Centro, a village in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, were headed for a family dinner in Santa Paula.