4 Die in String of Accidents Over Weekend

During four deadly hours Saturday night, four people died in a series of horrific car accidents--two apparently involving alcohol--that split one car in half and left at least two children fatherless just weeks before Christmas.

The night’s first death occurred just before 9:30 p.m. in Costa Mesa when a 1997 Chevrolet minivan driven by William Miller, 55, of Newport Beach plowed into a concrete support column on the southbound Corona del Mar Freeway at the Bristol Street overpass.

Emergency workers had to pry Miller’s body from the van. There were no passengers, and the cause of the crash is unknown, authorities said.

Three and a half hours later, Gina Simone lost control of her 1995 Honda Prelude while speeding west about 75 mph on Alton Parkway at Ada in Irvine, police said. The car swerved from the left to the right lane of the street, hopped the curb then hit first a lamp post, then a fire hydrant--sending water shooting higher than the palm trees--and finally a tree, police said.

The force of the crash split the car into two pieces, leaving the sole passenger, Carlo Salucci, and Simone in the rear end of the Honda while the car’s front end lay about 40 feet away. Salucci, 36, of Corona del Mar, was pronounced dead at the scene. Simone, 34, of Orange, was freed from the car by emergency workers and taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo with a broken pelvis and a bladder injury, police said.

At the hospital, Irvine police arrested Simone on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol. Skid marks from the Honda marked the car’s wild trajectory Sunday, stretching across the road before veering sharply onto the sidewalk.

Irvine investigator Doug Coffing said the early morning wreck underscores the dangers of drinking and driving.

“This is the holiday season,” Coffing said. “They were out partying and this is the result.”

Sunday, Salucci’s sister-in-law, Dawn Salucci, said that Salucci and Simone had come from a Christmas party in Dana Point. But she said she didn’t know why the two were driving through an Irvine neighborhood made up of light-industrial businesses.

Dawn Salucci said Carlo, who managed Gina’s Pizza in Corona del Mar, was a single parent raising a daughter, Ariana, 10, and a son, Nicho, 11.

“He was the most gentle-spirited person I’ve ever known in my life,” said Dawn Salucci, who is married to Carlo’s older brother Ennoi. “Everybody liked him. So many people stopped at the house today.”

Dawn Salucci said Carlo, who was Italian, was a wonderful chef devoted to his family. “He loved to get the family together and cook--three times a week if he could,” she said.

The family traditionally had a big Christmas Eve dinner at Dawn Salucci’s house, where Ennoi and Carlo cooked a feast passed down from their father, who passed away last year.

“He kept everything alive, every tradition,” Dawn Salucci said. “It’s such a loss. It’s so hard on us.”

Just 25 minutes after Carlo Salucci died, Rami Salim Naber was driving west on Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach when his 1997 BMW M3 crossed over the center median and hit a taxicab traveling in the opposite direction, police said.

The impact smashed the roof of the 1993 Ford taxicab nearly flush with the car’s body, killing both the 60-year-old taxi driver and the BMW’s sole passenger, Satish Kumar Patel, 32, of Anaheim, police said. The name of the taxi driver, a Huntington Beach resident, was being withheld pending notification of relatives.

Naber, 30, of Huntington Beach, was ejected before the car rolled to a stop on its roof west of Promontory Drive. He was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where he was listed in stable condition late Sunday. Newport Beach police arrested Naber at the hospital on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, Sgt. Fred Heinecke said. Naber is suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol. Bail was set at $50,000. Neither Naber nor Patel were wearing seat belts.

“Frequently we see people who are intoxicated and driving and are not injured [while] people in the other cars are,” Sgt. Steve Shulman said. “At this time of year, people have to be vigilant, because they can become innocent victims, just like this case.”

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Times photo editor Tracy Lee Silveria contributed to this report.