ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Buckle Up

Friends and relatives of the five family members who died as a result of a car crash Saturday on Santiago Canyon Road near Irvine Lake have a legacy of unanswered questions. But one thing is now known by authorities: The occupants of the vehicle in which five people were fatally injured, and two others hurt, were not wearing seat belts. A California Highway Patrol officer said the CHP attributed the tragic proportions of the accident to that lapse; initially, speeding or alcohol has been ruled out.

The accident occurred when a pickup truck driven by Nahum Rincon of Ripon, in Central California, crossed the center line on Santiago Canyon Road and crashed head-on into a four-wheel-drive truck driven by Joe Cruz Norman Mendoza of Walnut. Mendoza was driving members of his family home from a memorial Mass for an older brother, who died last year, and a picnic with nuns at St. Michael’s Abbey in El Toro.

Rincon and Mendoza, as well as Mendoza’s 10-year-old daughter and his wife’s father, died at the scene. Mendoza’s pregnant wife died a few hours later (the fetus was too undeveloped to be counted as a fatality under state law), and his wife’s mother died Monday. Also injured were Mendoza’s teen-age son and nephew.

The reason for the crash may well have died with Rincon, whose truck mysteriously left the proper lane. But its cruel lesson needn’t be lost. Wearing seat belts is the law in this state because they save lives. Perhaps some could have been saved in Saturday’s heart-rending accident.