Restaurateur Held in Crash That Killed Two

A restaurateur whose license was suspended two years ago for a drunk driving conviction was in jail Wednesday on suspicion of manslaughter and driving while drunk after being involved in a collision that left two Riverside County friends dead.

John A. Ferguson, 52, of Fullerton, was being held at Orange County Central Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail, officials said. He faces arraignment on felony drunk driving and manslaughter charges today in North County Municipal Court in Fullerton.

Buena Park Police Sgt. Terry Branum said that Ferguson allegedly made a left turn in front of a motorcycle shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday at the intersection of Knott Avenue and Melrose Street. The driver of the motorcycle, Gary Bristol, 45, of Sunnymeade, and passenger Donna Voccio, 29, of Riverside, were fatally hurt.

Police said Ferguson had just dropped off a friend and was driving his 1981 Plymouth Arrow west on Melrose Street when he came to the intersection, stopped for a second and then drove into the center of Knott Avenue.

But in doing so, police said Ferguson apparently failed to see a 1982 Honda motorcycle coming his way, northbound on Knott Avenue. The motorcycle, which police said was traveling the speed limit, slammed into the left rear fender of Ferguson’s car, sending its two riders into the air.

Branum said Bristol landed on a sidewalk 60 feet north of the intersection. Voccio, who worked at the same Buena Park 7-Up bottling plant as Bristol, was thrown more than 100 feet and landed on the center divider.

Bristol was rushed to Western Medical Center in Anaheim, while Voccio was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange. They both died of head injuries within two hours of the accident, Branum said. Neither was wearing a safety helmet.

“He (Ferguson) was not paying attention,” Branum said. “He just pulled right out.”

Branum said Ferguson told traffic investigators he had spent some time earlier in the evening at the Shipmates bar in Cerritos, then moved to the Glow Room in Buena Park. Shortly before the accident, he and a friend stopped at the Buena Park Sizzler Restaurant, which Ferguson owns, Branum said.

Branum said that police administered blood-alcohol tests to Ferguson, but the results were not immediately available.

A Department of Motor Vehicles spokeswoman confirmed that Ferguson was driving on a suspended license. He was convicted in September, 1982, and February, 1988, of driving while intoxicated, DMV records show.

His suspension was due to be lifted next February, a Police Department source said.

Thomas Gregory, president of the Los Angeles-based Sizzler Restaurants Inc., said Ferguson has held a franchise at the Buena Park outlet for about 30 years and that the parent corporation has had no problems with Ferguson during that time.

“I’m sorry he got himself into this mess,” Gregory said. “He’s a decent man.”

Bristol and Voccio had worked together at the 7-Up bottling plant on Orangethorpe Avenue since May, when Voccio landed a job there, according to her sister, Dee Scholler. They were on a dinner break when the accident occurred, she added.

Scholler, a single mother, said her sister had moved to California in January from Long Island, N.Y., where they were both raised. Voccio was still becoming adjusted to life in California and spent a lot of time helping Scholler with her children.

“She was the best sister anybody could ask for,” Scholler said Wednesday as she arranged to have her sister buried.

“She had a lot of friends (in New York) and was she was loved by a lot of people,” Scholler continued. “It’s a great loss to this world that she is gone.”