SAN CLEMENTE : Youth Injured in High-Speed Crash

A teen-ager suffered minor injuries Monday in what authorities say may have been a drag race on Interstate 5 between two groups of high school students.

“It appears that we had a couple of cars racing, and one of them lost control,” said Ken Daily, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol.

According to witnesses, a pickup truck and a Volkswagen were driving on the freeway at speeds up to 80 m.p.h. just after noon in the San Clemente area, Daily said.

Trouble came when the two vehicles overtook a slow-moving big rig in the right lane, near the Avenida Pico off-ramp, Daily said. The driver of the Volkswagen maneuvered along the shoulder and, after trying to get back into the lane, flipped into an embankment.

One of the passengers, identified as 17-year-old Beau James of San Clemente, complained of back injuries and was taken to Samaritan Medical Center-San Clemente. He was treated and released, a nursing supervisor said.

Daily said the two drivers will be cited for speeding and unsafe turning. The drivers and their passengers all attend San Clemente High School, he added.

CHP investigators are still trying to determine whether the drivers set out to go racing along the freeway. “But they definitely were in a hurry because they were late” in getting back to school, Daily said.

The accident came just three days after a high school student in Fullerton was killed and two others seriously hurt when their vehicle was reportedly speeding at more than 70 m.p.h. along a curvy residential route away from their high school.

The car plunged off the road, over a pool, and into the wall of a house. A passenger, Megan Glover, 16, was killed.