Michaela Ross Seriously Injured in One-Car Crash

Michaela Ross, an All-Orange County basketball and track and field athlete from Newport Harbor High, was seriously injured in an automobile accident Monday night near Cal Poly Pomona, the school announced Tuesday.

Ross and three other freshmen on the Cal Poly Pomona women’s basketball team--Lori Talley of Burbank and Tiffany and Taffany Maxwell of Long Beach--were injured when the car Talley was driving hit a curb and crashed into a tree on Valley Boulevard, south of Temple Avenue, near the university’s student housing.

There were no other cars involved and the students were taken to Pomona Valley Hospital.

Ross, who was in the front passenger seat, had the most serious injuries. She was knocked unconscious upon impact, suffering a partially collapsed lung, fractured pelvis, fractured lower vertebrae, broken right wrist and right thumb, dislocated and broken right ankle and dislocated and broken toes. Ross will need plastic surgery to repair cuts around her eye.

Ross was transferred Tuesday from the intensive care unit of Pomona Valley Hospital to Hoag Presbyterian Memorial Hospital in Newport Beach.

Tiffany Maxwell was also knocked unconscious. Her arm was shattered in six places and a severe cut on her leg required 40 stitches. Taffany suffered a fractured facial bone below the left eye. The Maxwell twins will be moved to the Family Health Plan facility in Cerritos.

Talley suffered a severely sprained wrist, a sprained right arm and cuts. She was released Monday evening. “The car just jerked and I lost control,” Talley said. “That’s all I remember.”

Pomona police declined to comment, but university officials said there was no alcohol involved. Police said it appeared that all four women were wearing seat belts.

In 1992-93, Ross averaged 23 points and eight rebounds, earning All-Southern Section Division III honors for the third consecutive season. The 5-foot-9 forward was the Sea View League co-MVP last season and twice earned all-county honors in basketball and once in the high jump.