IRVINE : Family Grieving for 9-Car Crash Fatality

Friends described 20-year-old Sean Joseph Sheridan as happy-go-lucky, a part-time newspaper deliveryman who was fond of basketball and working on his home computer.

He told his mother he wanted to teach children one day.

“He wanted to do so many things,” Marilyn Sheridan Ramirez said Thursday. “He had so many dreams.”

Wednesday afternoon, under gray skies and spattering rain, Sean Sheridan’s dreams died with him in a nine-vehicle accident that left another person seriously injured and his family grieving.

“Sean was just an All-American good kid,” Ramirez said. “At 20, he was trying to pursue an education, make a future for himself.”

Sitting in the kitchen of her Tustin home, holding her daughter’s hand for comfort, Ramirez recalled that she and her son had recently discussed his finishing the semester at Irvine Valley College and going on to a university.

“He was on his way home from school” when the accident happened. “Isn’t that sad?” Ramirez said. “It’s unfortunate that he won’t be here as an adult to make his contributions in life.”

Irvine police said the crash that took Sheridan’s life occurred at 2 p.m. on Irvine Center Drive near Culver Drive. Charges have not filed against John R. Brunasso, 36, of Laguna Niguel, who allegedly rammed his car into Sheridan’s, which was stopped at a red light at the intersection.

The crash triggered a chain-reaction pileup. Brunasso was in serious condition at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, a hospital official said Thursday. Gretchen M. Ramos, 39, of Irvine was treated for head injuries and released from the same hospital Thursday. Andrea L. Bunting, 23, of Irvine told police she had pain in her back and left arm.

Also involved in the accident but not injured, were: Katherin S. Anderson, 24, of Irvine; Christopher B. Andreasen , 29, of Dana Point; Louise H. Leverton, 72, of El Toro; Mary Aileen Matheis, 64, of Irvine, and Halbert D. Tran, 42, of Laguna Hills.

Police have made no arrests but say that they’re treating the accident as “vehicular manslaughter” and that charges are likely to be filed because of Sheridan’s death and because of the number of parties involved.

Sheridan’s sister, Erin, 18, can’t come to terms with the fact that she and her look-alike brother will no longer be squabbling over who uses the phone.

“I was at work yesterday and I picked up the phone to call him to ask if I had any messages,” Erin said. “It was then that I caught myself and realized he’s not here any more.”

Sheridan’s brother, Tim, 26, remembered the hollow feeling he felt when a sheriff’s deputy informed him of his brother’s death.

“I’ve been in trouble before,” Tim Sheridan said. “I thought they were coming for me. They weren’t.”