Man Killed as His Car Rams Into Truck

A 22-year-old Yorba Linda man was killed Friday when his car drifted over a double line on rural Santiago Canyon Road east of here and crashed head-on into a truck, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Officers identified the victim as Ronald Dale Todd.

Todd was traveling at about 45 m.p.h. heading north near Silverado Canyon Road when the accident occurred at 5:30 p.m., officers said. His car rammed the oncoming flat-bed truck, spun and was struck by a pickup truck that had been following Todd.

Officers said neither of the other drivers was injured because both were been wearing seat and shoulder belts.

The accident on an already busy holiday weekend forced CHP officers to close a three-mile stretch of Santiago Canyon Road--a major route for commuters--for about three hours.

The result, they said, was “mayhem”--a major traffic jam first on Santiago Canyon Road from the accident, and then on adjacent roads in South and Central County as motorists jockeyed to find alternate routes home.

Santiago Canyon Road is a major alternate route, bypassing the Santa Ana Freeway, that links Mission Viejo in South Orange County to Orange in central Orange County. The road was closed from a segment known as “Cook’s Corner” to Silverado Canyon Road.