LOCAL : Pedestrian Killed in Dana Point

A pedestrian believed to be a transient was killed early today when he was struck by a car on a section of Coast Highway that has been the scene of several similar fatalities, authorities said.

The male victim was not immediately identified. He had been seen in a local bar shortly before the 12:30 a.m. accident, said Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson.

The driver of the car, Jennifer Kawasaki, 16, of Laguna Niguel, was driving from work on Coast Highway, near Palisades Drive, when she struck the man. He was dressed in dark clothing and was crossing from a commercial area on the east end of the road toward Capistrano Beach County Park and the south end of Doheny State Beach, Olson said.

Kawasaki has not been cited. The accident remains under investigation.

In the last 10 years, residents of the Capistrano Beach community have complained to officials that the dimly lit, sparsely populated stretch of highway, which parallels the Santa Fe Railway tracks, is a nighttime death trap for pedestrians misjudging the speed of oncoming cars.

Citing a string of pedestrian fatalities, including the mid-1980s death of an elderly couple, residents four years ago successfully lobbied county officials to improve street lighting and to install a pedestrian bridge over the highway.