Joy Ride Ends With Plunge Into Ravine for 13-Year-Old

A 13-year-old boy escaped serious injury during a Tuesday morning joy ride that ended when he lost control of a Corvette and plunged 75 feet into a ravine, police said.

The youth took the car of a family friend, police said, and drove by himself through a residential section of south San Clemente at speeds of up to 100 m.p.h. in the early morning fog. Although the car wound up mangled in a concrete ditch off Avenida San Pablo, the boy walked away from the accident with minor scratches and bruises, a police spokesman said. He was taken to Samaritan Medical Center-San Clemente, where he was treated and released.

“It was miraculous,” said the boy’s mother, who asked not to be identified. “He has learned a lesson from this. A big one.”

The near-tragedy was the second joy-riding incident in the city during the past two weeks. On May 21, a high-speed accident killed three of five San Clemente High School students who allegedly stole a high-powered sports car and drove at speeds of up to 120 m.p.h. before losing control of the vehicle, police said.

“You would have thought (the 13-year-old) learned something from those deaths two weeks ago,” said Sgt. Richard Downing. “This could have turned out the same way.”

The May 21 accident is still being investigated to determine who was driving the car and whether involuntary-manslaughter charges should be filed, Downing said.

He said Tuesday’s incident would be turned over to juvenile authorities, who will decide if legal action should be taken against the boy.

“Obviously, the juvenile does not have a license and the car was taken without permission,” Downing said.

The boy had taken the keys to the 1990 black Corvette around 7:30 p.m., Downing said, adding that witnesses saw the car speeding through the Presidential Heights neighborhood shortly before the accident.

Two blocks away from the teen-ager’s home, the car leaped the curb and almost went down a much steeper section of the ravine, he said. But the vehicle’s left wheels locked against the curb, sending the car back into the street, Downing said.

With the right tires blown, the car veered off the street again, careening down the bushy slopes of the ravine and landing upside down in the drainage ditch, he said.

The youth “had to climb out of the back window to escape the car,” Downing said.

The boy’s mother said he was shaken but otherwise is feeling good.

“There really is no explanation for why he did this,” she said. “He is just a young boy with temptation at hand.”

The woman said both she and her son were aware of the accident involving the San Clemente High students.

“He had no idea of what the consequences could be,” she said. “He’s a good boy who was too anxious to grow up.”