2 Pedestrians Hit, Killed by Motorist

Two pedestrians were killed and two motorists injured Saturday afternoon when a man driving a truck at high speed apparently ran a red light at a busy intersection, police said.

Maria Lupe Gonzalez, 40, of Whittier, and Luzonica Filoteo, 51, of Panorama City were walking north across Valley View Street at the intersection of Orangethorpe Avenue at 3:41 p.m. when they were struck by a truck driven by Nathan Robert Elson, 19, of Cerritos, said Lt. Robert Gonzales of the Buena Park Police Department.

Gonzalez and Filoteo, who were friends, were pronounced dead at the scene, Gonzales said. Elson was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and held at Buena Park City Jail.

Witness Jerry Castro said he heard the screeching brakes and the collision and then saw the two bodies in the street.

“Everything was like all of a sudden,” said Castro, 46, of Cerritos, who was having his car stereo repaired at a shop at near intersection, about 100 feet from the collision.

“A few people ran over and tried to revive them, but they were gone,” Castro said. “I knew they were dead. It was pretty horrible. I didn’t want to go out to the scene so I started directing traffic on Valley View.”

Police said Elson was traveling west on Orangethorpe through the intersection when he hit the pedestrians and struck another truck, a Honda and possibly another car. The two other drivers, who were not identified by police, were hospitalized with injuries that Gonzales said were “not life-threatening.”

Gonzales said the collision was under investigation but Elson did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

In another fatal accident late Friday, a 41-year-old Australian national visiting Orange County with his fiancee died of injuries suffered when he was struck by a tow truck as he crossed Katella Avenue, just west of West Street in Anaheim.

Police said Nigel Robin Kraal was not in a crosswalk when he tried to run across Katella about 10:20 p.m.

A spokesman for the Orange County coroner’s office said Kraal was deaf in one ear and not used to the direction of traffic in this country. Kraal and his fiancee were on their way to Las Vegas to be married, the spokesman said.

The driver of the tow truck, a 33-year-old Anaheim man, was not cited, police said.