Santa Ana : Feud on Highway Leads to Crash, Driver’s Death

A 16-year-old Garden Grove youth was arrested on suspicion of throwing a metal pipe at a station wagon in a roadway feud that ended with a driver’s death when a car collided with a tow truck, authorities said Monday.

Santa Ana Police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas said Que Viet Ta, 32, and his passenger, whose name was withheld because of his age, had been trading insults with Javier Garcia Guerra, 22, as people in two vehicles headed north on Harbor Boulevard on Sunday night, just before the 11:15 accident. The reason for the argument was unknown, she said.

According to Thomas, Ta sped up about a car’s length ahead of Guerra’s Buick station wagon and the unidentified youth with him threw a pipe at the vehicle. Seconds later, Ta’s black Nissan 300 ZX crashed into a tow truck that was preparing to make a left turn at the intersection of 17th Street and Harbor Boulevard. Ta apparently did not notice the stop light or the truck in front of him before he was killed, she said.

“We can only assume that the driver’s attention was diverted as the juvenile threw the pipe,” Thomas said.

Ta’s car then swerved and hit Guerra’s station wagon but there were no injuries to Guerra or his three passengers, police said. The tow truck driver also was uninjured.

Thomas said the youth was being held at Orange County Juvenile Hall on suspicion of throwing an object at a moving vehicle, a felony under the state Motor Vehicle Code.

Guerra was cited for alleged drunk driving and released from the Orange County Jail, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said.