8 Killed in Fiery Car Crash; Drunk Driving Suspect Held

Two toddlers, four other children and two adults died in a Father’s Day traffic accident on the Moreno Valley Freeway after their car was hit from behind by an allegedly drunk motorist with at least two previous convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol.

The collision, which occurred about 11:45 p.m. Sunday on California 60 near Moreno Valley, exploded into tragedy because of one mundane circumstance: The 1968 Plymouth sedan, packed with an extended family, lacked a gas cap.

When a pickup truck rear-ended the sedan just west of the San Bernardino Freeway, the car spun into the guardrail, flipped upside down and almost immediately burst into flame, California Highway Patrol spokesman Bob Nickel said.

“It went from being a bad accident with broken bones . . . to a tragedy” because of the missing gas cap, Nickel said.

Fueled by the leaking gasoline, which poured over the car’s frame and onto the asphalt, the fire killed eight of the car’s 11 occupants almost instantly.

“It was like something out of a movie,” witness Lee Page said. “I heard terrifying shrieking. A woman screaming. It sounded like a scream for life.”

CHP officers were still trying Monday to sort out the relationships of the victims. Several of the children may have been siblings.

Most, if not all, of the victims lived in a four-bedroom house in Beaumont, a small town known for its antique stores and summertime Cherry Festival. On Monday, the house sat silent, its porch light on to welcome the family that never made it home. Toy cars and framed photos lined the windowsills, and a wading pool hung from a hook near the back door.

The two adults who survived the crash--Jose Rodrigues, 39, and Mercedes Diaz, 40--were believed to be the parents or guardians of all the children in the car. Also surviving was a young girl, believed to be a first- or second-grader, who remained in critical condition at San Bernardino County Medical Center on Monday, with burns on as much as 85% of her body.

The other passengers, probably piled two deep on the sedan’s back seat, could not squirm free in time to escape the fire. “They never had a chance,” Nickel said. “I’ve been with the CHP for 10 years, and this is about the worst I’ve seen.”

A neighbor who knew the victims as a quiet, unassuming family took the news hard. “I was crying this morning when I heard,” Mercedes Glenn said. “At least the man who caused it didn’t get away with it.”

Police arrested the pickup’s driver, 35-year-old Teodolo Gallardo Bermudes of Palm Springs, just after midnight Monday, after a foot chase through the nearby farming town of Banning.

Bermudes, who suffered cuts and bruises in the crash, was given a blood-alcohol test, but results will not be available for at least a week. Banning police said they smelled alcohol on his breath. Bermudes has been charged with eight counts of first-degree murder, Nickel said.

Department of Motor Vehicle records show that Bermudes’ license was suspended and that he was placed on probation after drunk-driving convictions in August and October, 1994. Bermudes told police that he also had been convicted of driving while intoxicated in 1985 (DMV records go back only seven years).

Bermudes was not eligible for reinstatement of his driver’s license until May, 1996, DMV records show. He is on probation until 1999.

A leader of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers said Sunday’s accident shows that a revoked license is not punishment enough for many drunk drivers. “Someone like [Bermudes] just has to be removed from the streets for as long as possible each time [he is convicted] because he’s just not going to get it,” said Tina Pasco, MADD’s director of victim services.

Adults convicted of drunk driving are usually ordered to attend a counseling and education program. First-time offenders can receive up to six months in county jail and a three-month driver’s license suspension. For each subsequent conviction, the penalties mount. A four-time offender can receive a state prison sentence.

“[The punishments] slowly work up, but it’s way too slow,” Pasco said. “Our whole justice system says that we should give people a chance. But when we give them a chance again and again, it becomes a joke. And then that joke becomes a nightmare.”

CHP Officer Nickel said he shared Pasco’s frustration: “It aggravates the Highway Patrol just as much as anyone else to have to keep arresting these people over and over.”

Bermudes’ quick arrest came about thanks to three 20-year-old men who tailed him as he fled the scene, Banning police said.

Yorba Linda residents Stan Maloof and Lee Page and Downey resident Shawn Veith were driving on the freeway toward a casino when they saw the crash in their rear-view mirror. “I saw the car flipping. I saw the debris flying. I saw the fire ignite,” Page said.

Maloof dashed to the wreckage and tried to pull out a man whose legs were dangling from the car and whose torso was engulfed in flames. Unable to grasp the man, he tried to drag the limp body of a young girl away from the blaze. But the intense heat forced him to stop.

When police arrived, the three men realized that the bashed-up Ford had taken off and set out to follow it.

They spotted Bermudes, in his distinctive cowboy hat and green shirt, a few miles down the freeway. He apparently had abandoned the Ford, which was difficult to drive with its air bag deployed, and was heading on foot toward Banning.

Page and Veith gave chase, following him off the freeway past a convenience store and around the back of a pizza parlor. “I just went headstrong [after Bermudes], trying to do justice to those people in that car,” Page said. “That’s what I would have wanted done for me.”

Maloof, meanwhile, called police on a cellular phone.

Officers found Bermudes within minutes, and credited the three young men.

“Without them, I really don’t believe we would be able to have an arrest, let alone a quick arrest like that,” Banning Police Department Cpl. Mike Nava said.

While the three friends basked in police praise Sunday, neighbors of the crash victims quietly mourned.

Cheryl Clark recalled watching Mercedes Diaz step off a bus and head home to her children. And Curtis Vermillion, who lives next door, remembered giving one of the boys a Popsicle a few days before.

Ironically, Vermillion said, Rodrigues lavished attention on the Plymouth sedan that became a death trap Sunday. “There wasn’t a day that went by that he wasn’t under the hood of that car,” Vermillion said. “It was his pride and joy.”