Truck Hits Disabled Car on Freeway; 1 Killed, 3 Hurt

A Santa Ana man was fatally injured Wednesday and three other people were seriously hurt when a vintage Volkswagen Bug having engine problems was struck by a truck on the Santa Ana Freeway in Irvine, authorities said.

The 6:35 a.m. crash tied up four freeway lanes for more than three hours, police said.

The driver of the 1973 Bug, which was southbound on the freeway, was apparently trying to steer the sputtering vehicle from the inside carpool lane to the shoulder just north of Lake Forest Drive when the car was struck by a Ford F-150 pickup, California Highway Patrol Officer JoAnn O’Hair said.

Nelson Molina, 26, a passenger in the Volkswagen, was transported to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, where he died. Driver Indalecio Vasquez, 39, and passenger Francisco Molina, 23, both of Santa Ana, were hospitalized and in critical condition Wednesday night, said Karen Prestia, a Mission Hospital spokeswoman.

The truck’s driver, Daniel Favano of Chino, 45, was in serious condition late Wednesday at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, hospital spokeswoman Leslie Dormann said. A passenger in the truck, Favano’s 19-year-old son Daniel, was treated at the hospital and released.

Police said the truck was traveling about 70 miles an hour when it struck the car. The incident is still under investigation, O’Hair said.

Steering a disabled vehicle to the right shoulder is usually the right thing to do, O’Hair said, but the Volkswagen “was already by the center divider, so the divider would have been the better choice. You have no way of knowing if your car will make it across those lanes, especially with traffic moving at freeway speeds.”