Second Survivor Testifies About Moments Before Fatal Accident

An eerie and chaotic scene of teenagers “buzzed” on alcohol as they sped down a winding road, one of them singing loudly to punk rock music seconds before his death in a grinding collision, was described by a fellow passenger in a courtroom Tuesday.

One of the teens shouted for the designated driver to slow down, but most were capping a carefree night of partying, drinking liquor and beer, testified one of the party-goers, 17-year-old Heidi Funderburk, at a preliminary hearing held for the driver, Jason Rausch, 18.

Donny Bridgman, 18, the owner of the Chevy Blazer driven by Rausch, was killed in the crash.

Funderburk testified Rausch’s driving scared her but said the group of teenagers from Newport Harbor High School had spent the night partying, first at a friend’s house, then at a park.

“I was buzzed,” she said under questioning. “Everyone seemed buzzed.”

She said she was “blown away” when she found out Monday that her own blood alcohol content after the crash was .15%, nearly twice the limit considered drunk in California.

“It seemed like such a high number for what I believed my level of intoxication was,” the 17-year-old said.

The hearing, in Municipal Court in Newport Beach, will determine whether Rausch should stand trial in Superior Court on a charge of felony vehicular manslaughter. He had abstained from drinking alcohol that night and was the designated driver on May 23, when the 1989 Blazer spun, flipped and crashed on southbound Irvine Avenue in Newport Beach.

Rausch, who has pleaded not guilty, also is charged with two counts of misdemeanor reckless driving. The hearing continues today.

Also on Tuesday, the state’s accident reconstruction expert revised his estimate of the Blazer’s speed. Earlier, the expert, Edward Phillips of San Diego, placed the Blazer’s speed at 54 to 63 miles an hour. He testified Tuesday that he upped the speed estimate to 60 to 67 mph. The speed limit on that part of Irvine Avenue is 35 mph.

Rausch’s attorney, Jennifer Keller of Irvine, contests the findings and is scheduled to cross-examine Phillips today.

Heidi Funderburk was the second teenage passenger of the Blazer to testify in the hearing. She buttressed testimony given Monday by passenger Eric Freeman, 18, who said he yelled several times for Rausch to slow down.

Funderburk said that while she was at a party earlier that night, she sipped from a mixed drink. Later, she said she drank three cans of beer at a park.

Most of the 10 teens were drinking that night. Hospital and police records cited at the hearing showed Bridgman, the dead youth, had a blood alcohol content of .11%. Daniel Townsend, who suffered severe head injuries, was .14%. Passenger William Watson was .19%, and popular cheerleader Amanda Arthur was .068%, records showed.

Bridgman was singing along “in a weird voice” to a punk rock tape playing on the Blazer’s stereo moments before the crash last spring. However, Funderburk said the teens weren’t drunk, just “buzzed.”

“Having a buzz on is just being relaxed,” she said, not “falling down, slurring your speech, knocking things over.”

Funderburk testified she drinks about once a week, usually at parties with other teens. She said she began attending such parties when she was 16, the summer between her sophomore and junior years in high school. Her parents do not approve of her drinking, she said, but have never punished her.