Griffith-Joyner, Driver Hurt in Hit-Run Crash

U.S. Olympic gold medalist Florence Griffith-Joyner and her driver were slightly injured early Thursday when their limousine was rear-ended by an alleged hit-and-run driver on Interstate 5, the California Highway Patrol said.

The 1992 Lincoln Town Car limousine in which Griffith-Joyner was a passenger was rear-ended by a pickup truck driven by Eloy Adalberto Griego Jr., 49, of Albuquerque, N.M., CHP spokesman Bruce Lian said.

Both Griffith-Joyner, 34 of Mission Viejo and her driver, Eugene Lyles, 50, of Los Angeles were slightly injured, Lian said.

Al Joyner, 34, Joyner’s husband and himself an Olympic gold medalist, was also in the limousine but was not injured, Lian said.

The accident occurred about 5 a.m. in the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 just north of the El Toro Road off-ramp.

Lian said the hit-and-run driver “must have been flying, because the limousine was going between 55 and 60 m.p.h., and (he) blasted them from the rear.”

Griego drove away from the scene before police could get there, Lian said. Joyner and Lyles were taken by paramedics to Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills. Both were treated and released by 8 a.m., said hospital officials.

Both vehicles sustained “moderate damages,” Lian said.

A short time after the accident, Orange County sheriff’s deputies received a call about a possible prowler on Cavanaugh Road in Lake Forest, Lian said.

Lian said deputies discovered Griego looking for a place to hide after abandoning his truck on the freeway.

Griego was arrested on suspicion of hit-and-run driving and attempted burglary. The latter charge stems from Griego’s alleged attempt to break into a house on Cavanaugh Road, Lian said. He was being held at County Jail on $10,000 bail.