Countywide : 2 More Teens Die in Separate Car Accidents

Jacob Gharibian saw the sporty white sedan pull alongside his 16-year-old Mercedes in Fountain Valley and knew there was trouble.

“The [driver] sped up,” said Gharibian, 20. “He thought I was racing him.”

Later, the driver of the sedan allegedly ran a red light at Edinger Avenue and Brookhurst Street and was broadsided by another car, police said Monday. One teen-ager died and four other young people were injured in the Sunday night accident.

In a separate accident Sunday, a 17-year-old Buena Park boy was killed and two people were injured when their car was hit by a suspected drunk driver in Anaheim, police said.

The two deaths are the latest in a recent string of fatal traffic accidents involving Orange County teen-agers. On Aug. 8, a 16-year-old driver who police say was speeding to get a friend to driving school on time crashed in Fountain Valley, leaving two teen-agers dead and three people injured. And on July 29, a 17-year-old driver lost control of his car near Victorville, killing four Orange County teen-agers.

Authorities said Sunday’s fatal accident in Fountain Valley involved two drivers who ran a red light while racing at speeds of about 80 m.p.h. on Brookhurst Street near Edinger Avenue.

But Gharibian disputed the Fountain Valley police account and said he wasn’t racing.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t race a Mercedes--it’s like a big family car,” Gharibian said.

Neither driver was cited, and the investigation is continuing, police said.

The white sedan collided with another car that was heading east on Edinger Avenue about 11 p.m., said Fountain Valley Sgt. Dann Bean. A passenger in the sedan, Yin P. Lam, 17, of San Gabriel died at the scene. Another passenger, Tang Ha, was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where she was in critical condition. The sedan’s driver, Huy Quoc Tran, 20, and another unidentified passenger were treated and released from Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center.

The driver of the car that struck the white sedan, Lasamay Khamphouang, 23, of Huntington Beach, was treated for a broken collarbone and other minor injuries at Huntington Beach Medical Center.

Gharibian said his car also plowed into the wreckage when his brakes failed. He and his two passengers suffered cuts and bruises.

In the Anaheim accident, Albert Monzon, 17, of Buena Park died after the car in which he was riding crashed into a tree on Gilbert Street near Lincoln Avenue about 10:40 p.m. Monzon was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where he died that night.

The other passenger, a 16-year-old boy from Anaheim, suffered cuts and was treated at an undisclosed hospital, Anaheim Police Sgt. Greg Mattis said.

The car’s 18-year-old driver, Manual Ulloa of Los Angeles, was uninjured and later arrested on suspicion of felony drunk driving, Mattis said.