Decrying Drunk Driving, Neighbors Mourn Accident Victim

A makeshift memorial went up at a busy intersection on Wednesday carrying a simple plea: “Please Don’t Ever Drink and Drive.”

Shortly before midnight Tuesday, Constance Barrowman, 50, was driving with her 13-year-old son and two German tourists when a pickup truck driven by an allegedly drunk teenager plowed into her car.

She died on impact. Authorities said the pickup was driven by Lake Forest resident Christopher J. Bloom, 18, a Saddleback College student. Authorities say that Bloom sped through a red light and that his alcohol level was more than double the legal limit.

He will be arraigned Friday on charges of vehicular manslaughter and felony driving under the influence, said sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino.

A real estate agent, Barrowman leaves a son she raised on her own and home-schooled. Her passengers were former foreign exchange students--newlyweds who had befriended her when they studied in Orange County several years ago, Amormino said.

Barrowman’s death left her tightknit cul-de-sac Rancho Santa Margarita neighborhood stunned.

“She gave of her entire self to her son,” said one longtime neighbor.

Barrowman was part of a group of residents who had lived in the neighborhood for more than a decade, and over that time had formed tight bonds.

“Constance was always working on her yard and [her boy] was always behind her,” the neighbor said. “She was fun and extremely talkative. She could talk about anything, and was the kind of person you could call on at the spur of the moment.”

At Barrowman’s home, family and friends quickly built a protective cocoon around the boy.

“The boy is doing as well as can be expected,” a family friend said. An aunt and uncle are expected to care for him.

Barrowman, her son, and the German tourists were heading home when the accident occurred, Amormino said. The boy and the tourists were sleeping at the time of the accident, which happened as Barrowman tried to make a left turn from Melinda Road onto Rancho Santa Margarita Parkway.

Bloom had been partying with some friends earlier in the night, Amormino said, and told authorities he was heading home.

Statistically, teenagers make a small percentage of the people arrested for driving under the influence, let alone arrested for killing someone while driving drunk, according to statistics from Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

In fact, drivers under the age of 21 make up only 6% of people arrested for driving while intoxicated.

But while young people make up a small percentage of people involved in such arrests, they make a relatively large portion of the people who run red lights, said Julie Rochman, vice president of communications for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

“Young people tend to be more aggressive and risk prone,” Rochman said. “A lot of red light runners are not only young but alcohol impaired.”