Local News in Brief : Orange : CHP Seeks 2nd Driver in Motorcycle Fatality

The California Highway Patrol on Thursday sought a driver who may have run over a woman after she was thrown from a motorcycle on the Garden Grove Freeway.

CHP Officer Mike Lundquist said officers at the scene had believed Angela Caballero, 19, of Orange, a passenger on the motorcycle, died when the motorcycle struck two rolls of carpeting on the freeway Wednesday, throwing her to the pavement. But the coroner’s office has “determined all her bones were broken,” which indicates that she was run over, Lundquist said.

The official cause of Caballero’s death was massive head trauma with skull fractures, Deputy Coroner Cherry Van Stee said Thursday.

The CHP is looking for the driver of a bluish-white or blue-and-white Honda Civic who briefly stopped at the accident scene but later left, possibly without knowing that he had been involved, Lundquist said.

The accident occurred in Orange near the Glassell Street off-ramp when two rolls of 10-by-9-foot carpeting fell off the back of a pickup truck traveling westbound in the fast lane. It was driven by Michael R. Lockhart, 26, of Huntington Beach, officers said. The carpeting fell into the path of the motorcycle, which went out of control and crashed into the center divider, ejecting both the driver, Carlos Tirado, 19, of Santa Ana, and Caballero.

Neither was wearing a helmet. Tirado was reported in stable condition Thursday at UCI Medical Center.

The driver of a Honda is believed to have stopped in the aftermath of the accident and waited a while before leaving, possibly without knowing that he had run over the body.

The CHP said witnesses described seeing the car and its driver, described as a man of an undetermined age, about 5-foot-8, weighing 135 to 150 pounds, with dark hair. His car may have either no damage or only minor damage underneath from the accident, Lundquist said.

He asked that the driver or people with information about the incident call Officer Richard Ferrola or Officer David Geilhausen at (714) 547-8311.