FULLERTON : 1 Killed, 7 Injured as Car Flips, Crashes

A La Habra motorist was killed and his passenger severely injured when their car flipped over a center divider and slammed head-on into another car, injuring six family members, police said Friday.

Wayne M. Munier, 19, died at the scene of the 5:45 p.m accident Thursday along West Bastanchury Road.

His passenger, Erik Bettendorf, 18, of La Habra, was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana and was in critical condition Friday.

Six members of the Vela family, including a 1-year-old girl, were injured in the accident as they were driving back to their home in La Habra. The most seriously injured was warehouse worker Gabriel Vela Sr., 22, who was in critical condition Friday at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

“We were driving home and bang!” recalled Elizabeth Vela, 21, Gabriel’s wife, who suffered fractured ribs and cuts on her legs. The other car “just came out of nowhere and got us,” she said from her bed at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton.

“I’m really nervous now. I’m just afraid for my husband,” she said.

The Velas’ two children, Andrea, 1, and Gabriel Jr., 2, and a nephew, Anthony Vela, 8, were treated and released Thursday, hospital officials said. A sister-in-law, 24-year-old Evelyn Vela, was in fair condition Friday at UCI Medical Center.

Police said the cause of the accident is still under investigation. For undetermined reasons, Munier’s car went out of control as he was driving west in the 700 block of West Bastanchury. Traveling at an unknown speed, the car hit the center divider, flipped and landed in the opposite lanes of traffic.

“We see this car up in the air and landing on top of another car,” recalled Frank Gonzalez, 18, of Fullerton, who was driving with his friend Santiago Alvarez, 18, to their graduation ceremonies at Fullerton High School.

“It looked like the movies, in slow motion. I couldn’t believe it,” said Gonzalez, who jumped out of his car with Alvarez and helped pull the Vela children from the wrecked car.

Authorities said they do not believe that excessive speed or alcohol was involved. Munier was driving with an expired license, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Munier, who left Fullerton’s Troy High School about two years ago, worked occasionally at two retirement homes, where he visited the elderly, his brother, Jason Munier, 20, said.