Boy Dies in Hit-and-Run Crash; Driver Sought : Accident: The 8-year-old was a passenger in a car struck on the Costa Mesa Freeway by another automobile that witnesses said was speeding and weaving.

A motorist was being sought Sunday on suspicion of felony hit-and-run and manslaughter for causing an accident on the Costa Mesa Freeway that killed an 8-year-old boy, California Highway Patrol officials said.

“We really need to catch this person,” said Angel Johnson, CHP spokeswoman. “This was a tragic accident.”

The crash occurred about 9 p.m. Saturday when the driver of a white Mercury Merkur struck an Infiniti driven by Timothy Straw, 30, of Fountain Valley. Straw’s son, Wesley, who was killed in the collision, and his 4-year-old daughter, Taylor, were passengers in the car.

CHP officials and witnesses said the driver of the Merkur had been speeding and weaving in and out of traffic as he tried to pass other motorists on the southbound lanes of the freeway near Collins Avenue.

“The guy was really aggressive,” said Matthew Keene, a motorist who witnessed the accident. Keene said he was trying to get out of the driver’s way by moving over to the slow lane about the same time the driver tried to pass him on the right.

“He tried to beat me to the lane and ended up half in the (slow) lane and half in the emergency lane when he lost control,” Keene said.

The Merkur then swerved across the freeway and slammed into the rear right side of Straw’s car, which was in the second lane from the right, sending it over the embankment. The car landed on its roof in a concrete drainage ditch, authorities said. The Merkur sped away and exited at the Chapman Avenue off-ramp.

Keene said he pulled over to the side of the road to help the Straws, who were still inside the vehicle when he arrived.

“The father handed his boy and girl out the window to me,” Keene said.

At first the boy’s eyes were open and he was moaning in pain, Keene said. Then, “it was kind of like he was trying to go to sleep.”

About that time, Keene said, another motorist, who appeared to have had training in first aid, came to help. Paramedics arrived a short time later and transported the boy to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana.

Wesley, who lived in Moreno Valley with his sister and mother, was pronounced dead at the hospital of internal injuries. The father and daughter were treated for minor abrasions, CHP’s Johnson said. Authorities were unsure whether the three were wearing seat belts.

Johnson said the Merkur has tinted windows and a large spoiler on the back and should have damage to its left side. She asked that anyone with information about the accident call CHP Officer Keith Thornhill at (714) 547-8311.

Eric Ackel, a friend of the children’s mother, said the family “desperately needs help in trying to find this person. . . . (Wesley) was a good kid.”