Driver Dies in Ortega Accident : Victim Is Second Fatality on Highway Within a Week

A Moreno Valley man was killed and his passenger seriously injured early Sunday when their car missed a curve along South Orange County’s winding Ortega Highway and plunged down a 225-foot cliff.

It was the fourth traffic fatality in Orange and Los Angeles counties thus far over the Labor Day weekend, which began Friday night and ends at midnight tonight.

Statewide, the California Highway Patrol reported Sunday night, at least 42 people have died this weekend; 53 died during last year’s entire Labor Day weekend. There have been 1,589 arrests for drunk driving so far this weekend, the CHP said.

2nd Fatality in a Week

CHP officers said the Ortega traffic fatality--the second in a week on the treacherous highway--occurred about 8:30 a.m. when Fernando Zamora’s car, traveling east at a high rate of speed and with bald tires, swerved out of control and went off the side of a cliff, rolling 225 feet to the bottom.

Zamora, 37, was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the car. His passenger, Lona Chavez, 20, also of Moreno Valley, was wearing a seat belt and remained inside the tumbling car. The two men were taken by helicopter to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, where Zamora was pronounced dead on arrival and Chavez was listed in serious condition.

And in Anaheim, a 45-year-old Buena Park man was killed Saturday night when he was ejected from his car, apparently when it flipped over on the northbound Orange Freeway.

Car Swerved, Flipped

James Hamilton was pronounced dead at the scene. Witnesses told the CHP that his car began swerving before it flipped in the No. 2 lane of the freeway just north of Katella Avenue.

An unidentified passenger in the car was hurt, a CHP dispatcher said. But the extent of those injuries was not immediately known.

The dispatcher said Hamilton’s car was traveling between 55 and 60 m.p.h. when the accident occurred about 9 p.m. No other vehicles were involved, the dispatcher said. It is not known whether Hamilton was wearing a seat belt.

In Los Angeles, a 6-year-old girl was killed Saturday afternoon when the bicycle she was riding as a passenger ran a stop sign and was struck by a car in the San Fernando Valley. The driver was not charged.

Also Saturday afternoon, a 19-year-old man was struck by two cars and killed as he exposed himself to motorists on Pacific Coast Highway near Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades. Neither car stopped, and police have no suspects.

Sunday’s Ortega Highway accident was the latest of many on the scenic, 25-mile route that connects San Juan Capistrano with Lake Elsinore.

5-Car Pileup

Just a week ago, on Aug. 25, a 34-year-old Canyon Lakes man was killed and two other people were seriously injured in a five-vehicle pileup on the Ortega Highway.

A 1986 CHP study found that the accident rate for the Ortega Highway was 146% higher than the statewide average for similar highways. Between 1984 and 1986, the study said, there were 16 deaths and nearly 300 injuries on the short but deadly stretch. Speed was cited as one of the main causes of the unusually high accident rate.

Most of the accidents occur on the Orange County side of the highway, which bisects the Santa Ana mountains straddling Orange and Riverside counties.

A particularly treacherous spot, local residents say, is a straightaway stretch just east of Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park.

According to Kathy Rogers, manager of the San Juan Capistrano Hot Springs Resort off the highway, the straightaway is particularly dangerous because it provides a rare opportunity to pass slower-moving vehicles. Rogers said too many motorists take unsafe chances in passing on that stretch.

Crashes on S-Curves

Many accidents also occur on the sharp, S-curves of the two-lane highway.

“People drive too fast when they round the corners, and they either drift over the line (into oncoming traffic) or go off the edge,” said James Foster, owner of the Ortega Oaks Campground and Candy Store.

Motorcyclists racing up and down the highway are responsible for many of the accidents, CHP officials and local residents said. The CHP has beefed up patrols along the Ortega in recent years to try and deter the speeding, but, Foster said, the racing continues every weekend morning--sometimes as early as 5:30 a.m.

“We never get to sleep late, I tell you,” Foster said.

Times staff writer Steven R. Churm contributed to this report.