Crash Kills Saddleback College Student; Best Friend Is Injured : Fatality: The driver of the other vehicle, a minor whom police declined to identify, was arrested on suspicion of being drunk.

John Rood was a block from home early Thursday when a driver suspected of being drunk collided with the car driven by the 19-year-old, killing him instantly and seriously injuring his best friend, who was to spend Thanksgiving with Rood’s family, authorities said.

Rood, a student at Saddleback College, was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after the 1 a.m. crash, according to a spokesman for the Orange Sheriff’s Department. The passenger, Imran Salim, 19, of Laguna Niguel was taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, where late Thursday he remained in the hospital’s intensive care unit in serious condition with abdominal injuries.

The driver of the Bronco that collided with their car, identified only as a 17-year-old male, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Francis William said. He was treated for minor injuries and released from the hospital. Several passengers in the Bronco were treated for minor injuries at the scene.

Rood was driving Salim’s Acura Legend as they headed for Rood’s home where the two were planning to spend the Thanksgiving holiday, said a tearful Maureen Rood, his mother. The two, friends since their days together at Mission Viejo High School, both were studying business management at Saddleback.

Rood, gregarious and athletic, had played on the high school baseball and football teams and excelled in the gifted and talented program. He invited the less-outgoing Salim to spend the holiday at the Roods because Salim’s family was not together and he did not want his friend to be alone, his mother said.

“He always thought about everyone,” his mother said. “He would stop and talk to anyone whether they were 2 or 68.”

Wednesday night, Maureen Rood said she went to sleep thinking of the last-minute things she still needed to do to get Thanksgiving dinner ready for her husband, three sons and both their grandmothers. At 3 a.m., she was awakened by a knock at the door; sheriff’s deputies had come to tell her that her eldest son had been killed.

“When that happens to you, you’re not hearing anything,” the mother said, her voice heavy from crying. “He was a block from our house. . . . He was a good son. That’s why it’s so unfair.”