Two Teens Are Killed, Two Hurt in Collision

Two 17-year-olds from San Clemente were killed and two other teenagers were injured Sunday night when their cars collided in an exclusive residential area in San Clemente, authorities said.

The two cars were heading toward each other about 8:55 p.m. when they sideswiped one another at Marblehead Park, on the corner of Avenida Vista Hermosa and Via Turqueza.

The names of those killed, both male, were not available Sunday night.

Kyle Frank Williams, 18, of San Clemente and Matthew Edward Hidalgo, 19, of Capistrano Beach were listed in stable condition at San Clemente Hospital on Sunday night, a spokesperson said. They suffered minor cuts.

Williams, a San Clemente High School student, and Hidalgo, who attends Saddleback College, told Orange County sheriff’s deputies that the four teenagers knew one another and were heading to the same place Sunday.

The two teenagers who were killed were driving west on Avenida Vista Hermosa in an Alfa Romeo when the driver apparently turned left or swerved into a Nissan Maxima driven by their friends, authorities said.

“It was either a bad turn or bad judgment,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Colin Murphy.

It did not appear that either of the drivers had been drinking alcohol, he said. “It sounds like a complete accident.”

Sunday’s accident is the latest in a spate of deadly collisions involving Orange County teenagers since the beginning of the year.

In February, a 16-year-old was killed when he lost control of his speeding Subaru on the San Joaquin Hills toll road and struck another car head-on, killing a 28-year-old woman and her 6-year-old son. And exactly one month ago, a 16-year-old Woodbridge High School sophomore died and three other students suffered minor injures when the van they were riding in swerved off a rain-slicked street near the Irvine campus and slammed into a utility pole.

In February 1998, 18-year-old Jason Rausch was convicted of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for an accident that killed a Newport Harbor High School classmate and seriously injured two others in May 1997.