Board Moves Against Doctor in Fatal Crash

The Medical Board of California announced Tuesday that it has taken action toward permanently revoking the license of a Laguna Beach physician charged with murder in a head-on collision last month that killed a Mission Viejo couple and critically injured their daughter.

Board investigators delivered a seven-page accusation to Dr. Ronald J. Allen, 31, who is being held at the Orange County Central Men’s Jail. Earlier this month, a court commissioner temporarily suspended Allen’s license at the board’s request, pending a hearing Tuesday.

In the accusation, delivered Monday, the board accused Allen of various violations of professional conduct, including gross negligence and use of dangerous drugs and alcohol.

The accusation cites Allen’s arrest on June 1 on charges of hit-and-run driving, resisting arrest and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. At that time, the accusation said, Allen told a hospital emergency-room physician that he had ingested drugs in an effort to kill himself.

The accusation also refers to the fatal crash on July 11 and results of a subsequent drug screening that found Allen’s body contained amphetamines, benzodiazepines, opiates and alcohol.

The board also accused Allen of failing to respond to repeated pages on May 30 and 31 by the nursing staff at South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach concerning a patient he had admitted to the hospital.

South Coast Medical Center, where Allen was treated after his June 1 arrest, later suspended his patient-admitting privileges.