Three Die, Three Hurt in Separate Accidents

Two people were killed, a big-rig truck driver suffered a fatal heart attack on the freeway and three other people were injured in three separate crashes that briefly shut down two commuter routes early Tuesday, authorities said.

The series of accidents began at 3:45 a.m. when the truck driver, a 60-year-old Buena Park resident whose name was not released, died of a heart attack while driving a rented big rig north on the Orange Freeway in Fullerton, said Officer Angel Johnson of the California Highway Patrol.

After the driver’s heart attack, the truck crashed over the center divider just south of Yorba Linda Boulevard and stopped with the front wheels hanging into the southbound lanes, Johnson said. The car-pool lanes on both sides of the freeway were closed for an hour and a half while the big rig was cleared from the roadway, Johnson said.

“It’s quite amazing no other cars were involved,” Johnson said.

In the second crash of the morning, two people were killed at the Santa Ana intersection of Alton Avenue and Fairview Street at 4:45 a.m., said Sgt. Bob Clark of the Santa Ana Police Department.

The two victims, who were not identified pending notification of their families, were driving west on Alton in a 1981 Mazda when they were broadsided by a Ford Aerostar driven by 44-year-old Wenceslao Montes of Santa Ana as they crossed Fairview. The impact caused the Mazda to spin through the intersection, roll over and crash into a traffic light pole, Clark said.

Both victims, who lived in Santa Ana but were not related, were declared dead at the scene of the accident. Both had been wearing seat belts, Clark said.

Montes was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where his condition was listed as serious but stable, Clark said.

“It’s a sad thing,” Clark said. “Maybe these people were late for work or something, who knows.”

The third crash occurred at 4:50 a.m. on Ortega Highway, 15 miles east of San Juan Capistrano, when a 1993 Ford Escort trying to pass a big rig collided head-on with a 1993 Toyota truck, said Carol Kelly of the California Highway Patrol. The Ford then veered back into the big rig, which spilled 35 gallons of diesel fuel into the roadway, Kelly said.

The Escort and Toyota drivers were injured, but the driver of the big rig was unhurt. The popular commuter route between Lake Elsinore and San Juan Capistrano had to be closed in both directions for more than three hours, Kelly said.

The driver of the Ford, Ricardo Martinez, 41, of Lake Elsinore, suffered a broken leg. The driver of the Toyota, Robert Christian, 25, of Lake Forest, suffered a possible broken chin and several lacerations to the face, Kelly said.

Witnesses said Martinez had been driving erratically before the accident, which remains under investigation, Kelly said.