Driver Arrested in Death of Boy Flipped From Rear of Pickup

A Mission Viejo man has been arrested on charges of suspicion of drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter after losing control of his pickup truck on the San Diego Freeway, flinging a 13-year-old boy from the back of the truck to his death, authorities said Saturday.

Nathan Kinney of Mission Viejo died of massive injuries suffered when he was thrown out of the truck’s bed and off a 30-foot-high freeway bridge, striking a guardrail on the road below.

Driver Arrested Friday

Jeffrey Douglas Cauller, 38, was arrested on suspicion of felony drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter after the accident Friday in Irvine on the San Diego Freeway, just north of the El Toro Y, a California Highway Patrol spokeswoman said.

Cauller was driving north at between 55 and 60 m.p.h. with his 13-year-old son in the pickup cab and Kinney in the back when the fatal episode took place about 6:15 p.m., the CHP said.

As the driver was changing from an inside lane to the fast lane, his son asked him a question and he looked away from the road, Cauller told the CHP.

When he glanced back at the highway, Cauller discovered he was about to run off the pavement.

Pulled Wheel to Right

He jerked the steering wheel back to the right and lost control of the truck, which struck a bridge rail at a highway over-crossing, the CHP spokeswoman said. The impact flung Kinney over the side of the bridge and onto a guardrail 30 feet below, she said.

By the time paramedics reached the scene, the youth was dead, authorities said.

Cauller and his son, whose name officials would not release, were not injured in the accident, the CHP spokeswoman said.