SANTA ANA : Pedestrian Dies, Driver Badly Hurt

A Costa Mesa woman with a suspended driver’s license struck and killed a 20-year-old pedestrian Tuesday as her car careened over a sidewalk and flipped over in a drainage ditch, authorities said.

Ana Maria Andrade-Morales died shortly after being transported to UCI Medical Center in Orange, police said.

The driver, Susan A. Soule, 25, was in critical condition at UCI Medical Center, where traffic investigators questioned her after the 8:38 a.m. accident, police said. Soule, alone in the car, faced charges of vehicular manslaughter, said Sgt. Raul Luna.

She was driving south on Fairview Street when she apparently lost control of the car, ran over the sidewalk and struck Andrade-Morales, who was walking with two friends, 10-year-old Margarita Blanco and 17-year-old Beatriz Medina, neither of whom was injured.

“We didn’t even hear the car” coming from behind us, Medina said. “All we heard were the wheel rims hitting the curb.”

As the trio walked along Fairview Street just north of Dahl Lane, the car rushed by them in a blur, nearly close enough to scrape Blanco’s knee, she said.

Andrade-Morales had immigrated from Mexico just this month looking for work as a maid to help pay for medical treatment for her ailing, 11-month-old son, said her friend, Santa Ana resident Amelia Meneses, 34. Andrade-Morales had been living with Meneses here.

“Now her parents are trying to arrange to have her body transported (for burial), but they don’t have the money,” said Meneses.

Traffic investigators did not know how fast Soule’s car was traveling when it struck Andrade-Morales.

It was not clear why Soule may have lost control of the car, Sgt. Art Echternacht said, and investigators need to see results of further tests to determine if drugs or alcohol were involved.

Soule’s driver’s license was suspended om Sept. 21, 1989 because of a failure to appear in court for outstanding traffic citations, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles. The citations stem from two violations in 1988 when Soule allegedly drove without a license, without insurance or without registration, DMV records show.

Some residents of the area, who gathered around the accident site complained that drivers regularly ignore the 40-m.p.h. speed limit along the three-lane street.

“As long as I’ve been here there’s been cars speeding down that street,” said one man, who declined to give his name. “There should be a signal light here or at least crosswalks,” for the intersection, said Jose Luis, who works in the area.

There are stoplights along Fairview Street at McFadden and Edinger avenues, but no traffic controls at the Dahl Lane intersection.