COUNTYWIDE : Freeway to Close for Crash Reconstruction

State transportation officials will close a section of the San Diego Freeway for several hours beginning at midnight tonight.

All southbound lanes of the freeway between Jeffrey Road and the Santa Ana Freeway interchange will be closed from midnight until 5 a.m. Wednesday, according to the California Department of Transportation.

Caltrans said detours will be posted.

Highway officials will close the freeway lanes to re-create the scene of an accident that is the subject of a lawsuit against the state.

On April 19, 1990, a van driven by Eulalio Castillo, 38, of Mission Viejo drove through a closed section of the freeway near Irvine Center Drive, slamming into a maintenance truck, according to the California Highway Patrol. Killed were Castillo and a maintenance worker, Kevin Smith, 26, of Lancaster. A second Caltrans worker was injured.

The families of the Caltrans workers have filed a lawsuit naming the state of California and the Castillo estate, said Janine R. Fowler, a Caltrans attorney.

Using CHP reports, highway officials will reconstruct the work site as it appeared at the time of the accident and make a videotape that will be presented to a jury when the lawsuit goes to trial, Fowler said.

The nighttime reconstruction is designed to help the state in its defense, said Rose Orem, a Caltrans spokeswoman. The accident will not be staged.