Family That Lost 2 of 5 Sons Consoled

Stunned and sorrowful, longtime neighbors stopped by Sunday morning to console a grieving family, two of whose children were killed the previous night when a car driven by their father collided with another as he drove home from basketball practice.

Friends said Don Howard Paul, 57, a youth-league basketball coach, had taken his team out for pizza after practice, dropped off two of the players, and was bringing dinner home with three of his five sons when the accident occurred.

Police said the collision happened about 6:50 almost a mile from Paul’s home at Santiago Boulevard and Taft Avenue and involved Paul’s station wagon and a car driven by Louise Steinberg, 43, of Orange.

The impact threw his two boys, Spencer Howard Paul, 2, and Taylor Edison Paul, 7, from the station wagon, authorities said. Spencer was not in a car seat, and Taylor was not wearing a seat belt, as the law requires for both, Orange Police Sgt. Brad Davis said.

Taylor was killed instantly and Spencer died at Chapman Hospital in Orange. A third son, Matt, 14 and a student at Cerro Villa Junior High, suffered facial cuts and fractures, police said. He remained in stable condition Sunday at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana.

Paul, who works in the aerospace industry, was treated for minor injuries at UCI Medical Center in Orange and returned home Sunday morning.

Police are still investigating the accident and released few details Sunday. Neither driver has been cited.

Neighbors said that while Paul’s injuries were minor, his personal trauma was major. “He’s carrying the weight of it on his shoulders,” Steve Parker said. “It’s awful.”

Carol Christman said she and another neighbor passed the scene of the accident Saturday evening but could get no information. They stayed with Paul’s wife, Virginia, for two hours Saturday night until police brought her the news.

Sunday, Christman said she had received more than a dozen phone calls from friends who wanted to help the Pauls. She said the neighbors are organizing meals to take over to the family.

“They are wonderful, loving, outgoing people. No one could have a bigger heart than Don and Virginia,” she said. “It’s so tragic.”

All aspects of their lives were focused on family, she said. “It was the five boys. That is their life.”

Many families in the hillside tract of comfortable homes have known one another since they all moved in seven years ago.

“There isn’t a family in this neighborhood that doesn’t know each of these kids like their own,” Parker said. “Little ol’ Spencer was the baby on the block and everybody’s pal.”

“We’re kind of in shock,” said a tearful Mary Moore, whose 2-year-old son was best friends with Spencer.

Parker’s son Jimmy called Taylor, a second-grader at Nohl Canyon Elementary School, “fun and brave and pretty excited.” He played in Little League, following the footsteps of his older brothers, Parker said.

Paul coaches basketball in the National Junior Basketball (NJB) League for Matt’s team in Villa Park, neighbors said. Saturdays, he holds a basketball clinic for first- and second-graders, friends said. All of Paul’s boys, who ranged in age from 2 to 14, except the two youngest were involved in organized sports.

Sunday night’s regularly scheduled NJB game was canceled because of the accident, neighbors said.

All day Sunday, neighbors were calling and dropping by to comfort the Pauls, make coffee, or provide transportation or moral support. “There’s not a lot you can say,” Parker said. “It’s going to be a sad week.”

Detective Sean O’Toole, who is investigating the accident and who was unavailable for comment Sunday, is asking that anyone with information about the collision contact him at (714) 744-7460.