4 Hurt in Chain-Reaction Crash After Man Loses Control of Car

A 21-year-old Corona del Mar man lost control of his car Monday and caused a five-car pileup that left him and three others injured, including a 77-year-old man who was hospitalized in critical condition, police said.

“The accident stemmed from a lane-changing dispute,” Irvine Police Sgt. Tom Hume said.

The collision, which occurred about 1 p.m. on MacArthur Boulevard south of Bonita Canyon Drive, forced the closure of MacArthur for several hours.

Hume said the driver of an Acura was heading north on MacArthur Boulevard when he apparently began arguing with the drivers of a red Porsche and a blue, four-door BMW over lane changing.

“All three drivers were seen driving erratically,” Hume said.

At some point, the driver of the Acura tried to change lanes and lost control, Hume said.

The driver crossed the painted median and swerved into the southbound lanes, where his car collided head-on with a 1990 Honda driven by the elderly man, Hume said.

The collision sparked a chain-reaction crash involving three other southbound vehicles.

The BMW and the Porsche sped away. Hume said investigators were looking into the possibility the accident is a “non-contact hit and run.”

Police declined to identify any of those involved in the accident.

The 77-year-old victim was given cardiopulmonary resuscitation and taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana in critical condition. The driver of the Acura was taken to UCI Medical Center and reported in stable condition.

The drivers of a Pontiac 6000 LE and a Toyota sedan received minor injuries and were expected to be released from Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, police said. Occupants of a Volkswagen Fox, which was at the rear of the pileup, were not injured.

Guitta Darbani, 17, a passenger in the Volkswagen, said all she saw was “smoke and green stuff coming from (the Honda). We thought it was going to blow up. . . . All I could remember was a really loud noise. I kept telling (the driver) to stop, but she said she couldn’t.”

A stretch of MacArthur Boulevard from University Drive to Bison Avenue was closed in both directions for several hours while investigators combed through the wreckage and measured skid marks.

Hume said investigators have not determined how fast any of the drivers were going or exactly what led to the accident. He also said no citations have been issued pending the outcome of the investigation.

“The (investigation) is a little sensitive at this point,” he said. “We’re still trying to gather all the information.”

Police have requested that anyone who may have seen the accident or what led up to it to call either Hume or traffic investigator Keith Milledge at (714) 724-7021.