3 More Killed in High-Speed Police Chases : Pursuits: Toll rises to 10 deaths in two weeks. Authorities say suspects are more reckless, but critics say officers are falling victim to macho mentality.

The death toll from an extraordinary spate of fatal police chases mounted this weekend as pursuits in Los Angeles, Riverside and Ventura counties ended with fleeing suspects crashing and killing three motorists, officials said Saturday.

Including Saturday’s crashes, which occurred in a five-hour period, there have been eight police pursuits in Southern California that have ended in death in the last two weeks. Altogether, 10 people have been killed--all but two of them bystanders caught in the path of speeding suspects.

The fatal collisions raise new concerns about the adequacy of police guidelines on high-speed pursuits. The debate erupted last summer when a car being chased by U.S. Border Patrol agents crashed in front of Temecula Valley High School, killing six people, including four teen-age students.

One of Saturday’s deaths occurred after a suspect’s car fled an immigration checkpoint just south of Temecula and collided head-on with a car while trying to elude federal and Riverside officers on Interstate 15. The other incidents involved a car with a theft suspect that broadsided a vehicle near Irwindale and a car with a suspected drunk driver who rammed a van on California 126 near Santa Paula.

After last June’s crash in Temecula, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service revised its policy on pursuits, ordering agents to terminate a chase when “the danger posed to the public . . . is greater than the benefit of apprehending the suspect.” But an INS official said Saturday that no rules could have prevented the most recent collision, which occurred after the suspect made a U-turn on the freeway and began racing south in northbound lanes.

“You can only control your own actions; you can’t control the actions of the suspect,” said Steve Kean, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in San Diego. He said INS agents pulled over to the shoulder after the suspect began traveling against traffic, while Riverside County sheriff’s deputies crossed the freeway and safely followed the man from the proper lanes.

“The suspects seem like they’re becoming more reckless,” Kean said. “They often have a gross disregard for the value of human life and, sometimes, for their own safety.”

But James Lasley, a criminal justice professor at Cal State Fullerton who has studied the Los Angeles Police Department’s policy on pursuits, contended that high-speed chases have no place in today’s congested urban landscape. At any rate, Lasley said, most policies governing such matters get superseded by a “macho subculture” within police agencies that deems any officer a “wimp” if a suspect is allowed to escape because of fears that someone might get hurt.

“I think it’s just this street-level justice mentality,” Lasley said. “When the adrenaline is pumping, you don’t really think of the potential hazards you’re going to confront.”

Officials offered no explanation for the recent surge of fatal police chases and it was unclear if either the number of law enforcement pursuits or the number of deadly crashes were on the rise.

In 1991, the California Highway Patrol reported that its officers were involved in 967 pursuits statewide, resulting in 728 arrests. As a result of those chases, 12 officers were injured, 11 suspects were killed, and 133 other suspects were injured, along with 51 people who were not involved in the pursuits.

Pursuit policy spelled out in the 1992 LAPD manual calls for officers to “continuously question whether the seriousness of the initial violation reasonably warrants continuation of the pursuit.” Unmarked units without emergency equipment are prohibited from joining the chase and the assistance of a helicopter is recommended.

In San Diego, officers are also encouraged to rely on a helicopter while patrol units proceed at a slower pace until the suspect stops. Even so, the department, which averages about three high-speed chases a day, ends up calling off at least one pursuit daily because of safety concerns, Police Chief Bob Burgreen said Saturday.

“Law enforcement is put in a double bind,” Burgreen said. “We don’t want to put our officers or the public in jeopardy. But on the other hand, if we decide we are not going to pursue anyone, how long will it be before everyone figures it out and gets away?”

The first of the weekend’s fatal pursuits began in Ventura County shortly before midnight Friday. A CHP officer saw a white pickup erratically driving east at an estimated speed of 90 m.p.h. to 100 m.p.h. on California 126--a stretch of rural road that has come to be known as “Blood Alley” because of grisly accidents.

The officer chased the truck for about seven miles, which the vehicles covered in about five minutes, said Stacie Morse, a CHP spokeswoman. As they neared Santa Paula, the truck switched from the fast lane to the slow lane and rear-ended a van driven by Richard Joseph Ybarra, 31, a Bakersfield man who was headed home after visiting relatives in the Ventura area.

Ybarra’s adopted niece, Victoria Gonzales, 16, who was sleeping on the floor behind the front passenger seat, died of multiple injuries. Ybarra and the girl’s aunt suffered minor injuries.

“It just breaks your heart,” said Ventura County deputy coroner Zelmira Isaac. “She was a beautiful girl with long black hair. It was such a tragedy.”

Police arrested Antonio Morales, 21, of Ventura on charges of felony driving under the influence of alcohol and second-degree murder.

In the second incident, an Irwindale police officer in a K-9 unit saw a car theft suspect racing south on Peck Road shortly before 2 a.m. Saturday in the tiny San Gabriel Valley community. The officer turned on his siren and emergency lights, but the stolen Ford Escort continued at about 70 m.p.h., officials said. Two minutes later, the suspect ran a stop sign, broadsiding a car and killing the driver, a 50-year-old El Monte man.

Police arrested Javier Corales, 21, on suspicion of murder.

“I’m sure if the officer knew what was going to happen he would have stopped his pursuit immediately,” Irwindale Police Sgt. Raul Breceda said. “But it’s so unpredictable. No one has a crystal ball.”

About 4 a.m., Border Patrol agents stopped a 1977 Cadillac Seville at an immigration checkpoint two miles south of Temecula. An agent noticed two handguns on the passenger seat and asked the driver if he was a police officer. When the driver began to reach for the guns, officials said, the agent tried to grab the guns. The suspect sped away.

As dictated by the INS’s new pursuit policy, a spokesman said, the agents who took chase notified a supervisor and a dispatcher, who in turn alerted local law enforcement officials. Eventually, Riverside County sheriff’s deputies took over the pursuit and followed the car eight miles up Interstate 15.

The driver of the Cadillac, James E. Fischer, 57, of San Diego slammed on his brakes and made a U-turn in the middle of the freeway, authorities said. Fischer began traveling against traffic for about two miles until he slammed head-on into a Toyota Tercel. The collision instantly killed the Toyota driver, whose name was withheld pending notification of relatives.

Fischer was airlifted to Riverside General Hospital. His condition was not known.

Those collisions follow five other fatal police chases that have occurred since Nov. 7.

The casualties include a 17-year-old Monrovia boy who was struck by a car full of shooting suspects who had been pursued by Pasadena police for seven miles; a 57-year-old Tustin man broadsided by a car driven by a suspected bank robber in Huntington Beach; a 19-year-old man killed in West Hollywood when a car fleeing Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies plowed into his vehicle; a 22-year-old shooting suspect who led Los Angeles police on a 11-mile chase to Carson, and three other people--including a 1-year-old girl--when a car of gang members rammed a vehicle in Hawthorne.

Times staff writers Tom Gorman, Mark Platte and Michelle Quinn contributed to this story.