Santa Margarita Teen Identified as Crash Victim
A young man killed when the car in which he was riding collided with a commuter van Tuesday was identified Wednesday as Garrett Lerma, 19, of Rancho Santa Margarita.
Because Lerma was holding a bag of marijuana at the time of the crash, police speculated that its use might have contributed to the accident, which happened about 6 p.m. on Los Alisos Boulevard near the Foothill Transportation Corridor.
“We’ve turned the case over to the district attorney’s office,” Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, said Wednesday, adding that criminal charges could be filed against the driver of the car, a Nissan Maxima.
“We don’t know what happened yet,” Amormino said. “We’re looking at a couple of different scenarios and waiting for the results of toxicology tests to come back.”
Pending results of the department’s investigation of the accident, Amormino would not identify either the driver of the car in which Lerma was a passenger or the driver of the commuter van, which had no passengers at the time.
Both drivers were treated for minor injuries at a hospital, then released.
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