Police Arrive Too Late to Prevent Fatal Crash : Traffic: Motorcyclist hits a stalled car in the 20 minutes officers took to respond to the first 911 call. Cops defend their actions.

Witnesses to a fatal traffic accident said Friday that repeated emergency calls over 20 minutes about a stalled car in traffic failed to bring police in time to prevent a motorcyclist from slamming into it.

Twenty-one minutes after the first emergency call was logged Thursday afternoon about a car sitting on MacArthur Boulevard and Newport Coast Drive, a police officer arrived to find that William R. Kral of Newport Beach had crashed into it, said Sgt. Dwight Henninger of the Irvine Police Department. Authorities received at least four emergency calls about the stalled car during that 20 minutes, he said.

Kral, 25, died later at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana.

“We were jumping out of our clothes trying to find out where they (police) were,” said Sonia O’Bryan, 29, who made two 911 calls from her car phone at the scene, and witnessed the fatal collision. “I remember thinking this is ridiculous. It’s not like we live in the boonies.”

But police defended their response time, saying it was well within departmental goals. A stalled vehicle receives one of the lowest priorities, according to department guidelines. The recommended response time is 60 minutes or less, Henninger said.

Irvine police were first notified by Newport Beach police about the stalled car at 1:17 p.m., Henninger said. An Irvine dispatcher called a traffic unit to the scene at 1:18 p.m., and exactly 20 minutes later the officer arrived, Henninger said.

“It’s extremely unfortunate what happened,” Henninger said. “But I don’t feel I need to be making excuses for us getting there within 20 minutes. People need to drive carefully when there’s a stalled car and be responsible for their own actions.”

Henninger also said several callers misidentified the actual site of the stalled car, telling dispatchers it was at MacArthur Boulevard and the Corona del Mar Freeway. The responding officer went there first, Henninger said.

Before Kral’s accident, at least three minor accidents were caused by the stalled vehicle, police said.

Terry Smith, who passed the chaotic scene, also placed an emergency call from her car phone to authorities before the deadly crash.

“I was very explicit,” said Smith, 35, of Villa Park. “I said you’ve got to get someone out here or someone is going to die.”

Police said Kral’s helmet apparently was not strapped on.