Fatal Crash on Quiet Irvine Street Probed

Police on Monday continued to investigate the cause of an unusual accident on a quiet residential street that killed a man and injured his wife.

The Sunday night accident took the life of Ioannis (John) Doukas, 33, co-founder of the Duke’s Charbroiler hamburger chain, and injured his wife Debbie Doukas, 31. The mishap occurred in Woodbridge Village about 10 p.m. as they drove on Stone Creek North, around the corner from their home on Cross Creek.

Debbie Doukas was listed in stable condition Monday at UCI Medical Center from upper chest injuries.

The crash destroyed a 2-by-3 foot cobblestone pillar that was part of the back fence of Leroy Morse’s home and also destroyed his storage shed. Tire tracks began about 20 yards away, showing where the car jumped the curb and knocked over a small tree before hitting the fence post and collapsing the fence.

“It sounded like an explosion,” said Morse, 66, who was in his den at the time of the accident. The couple’s 1985 Chrysler New Yorker came to rest about 10 feet from the den.

“Then I ran outside and I saw the car sitting here,” Morse said, gesturing to the shattered cement-and-riverstone pillar that lay on his patio. “The whole front end was just gone.”

Police Sgt. Al Murray, who heads the department’s traffic investigation unit, said the husband probably suffered fatal injuries because he was not wearing a seat belt. Debbie Doukas was wearing her seat belt, he said.

Murray said investigators are not sure what caused John Doukas to lose control of the vehicle, which he estimated was traveling about 40 m.p.h. at the time of impact. An autopsy on the driver, scheduled for today, may provide more information, Murray said, speculating that it could have been a medical condition.

The couple have a 13-year-old daughter, a former neighbor said..

John Doukas and his brother, Sam, founded the Duke’s chain in the mid-1970s, according to Tony Triantos, owner of the Duke’s Charbroiler in Santa Ana. Triantos said there are more than nine Duke’s restaurants in Southern California. The brothers owned the restaurant in Orange while the other stores are owned by individual operators who lease the property from the Doukases.

“He was a fine man, a hard worker,” Triantos said of John Doukas. “A very hard worker.”