Status of Traffic Light Important in Collision That Killed 2 Boys

Detectives were attempting to determine the color of traffic lights at the time two cars collided at a city intersection during the weekend, killing two young boys.

Authorities said Monday that information about the signals--and whether one of the drivers ran a red light--could help them determine what caused the violent Saturday evening crash that threw Taylor Paul, 7, and 2-year-old Spencer from their family station wagon when it collided with a car at Santiago Boulevard and Taft Avenue.

A third brother, Matt Paul, 14, was also in the car at the time of the accident and suffered facial cuts and fractures. He remained in stable condition Monday at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana. Doctors are expected to release him in the next few days, hospital spokeswoman Joyce Lowder said.

Neither the boys’ father, Don Howard Paul, 57, who was driving the wagon, nor the other driver, Louise Steinberg, 43, has been cited, Orange Police Detective Sean O’Toole said. Both drivers were treated for minor injuries and released during the weekend.

O’Toole said Spencer was not in a car seat and Taylor was not wearing a safety belt as the law requires. The detective said the lack of safety restraints is “something we’ll discuss with the district attorney’s office and let them make the decision based on the evidence we present.”

Police said both vehicles were traveling about 30 m.p.h., the station wagon northbound on Santiago and Steinberg’s car heading east on Taft, when they collided. The impact sent both cars spinning, leaving Steinberg’s car resting in the intersection while the station wagon was sent crashing into a traffic pole at the northeast corner of the intersection.

Authorities said they hope that more witnesses will come forward with details not yet known.

“We still aren’t positive on the cause of the accident yet,” O’Toole said.

The collision occurred about 6:50 p.m. Saturday, nearly a mile from the Paul residence. Paul, a youth-league basketball coach who works in the aerospace industry, had taken his team out for pizza after practice and was bringing dinner home with three of his five sons, according to family friends.

Funeral services for the two boys will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, 800 N. Cambridge St., Orange. Burial will follow at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery, 7845 E. Santiago Canyon Road, Orange.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent in the boys’ memory to the Hillside Home for Children, 940 Avenue 64, Pasadena, Calif. 91105.