400 Visit Crash Site to Mourn a Friend

Lisa Ross had shed 107 pounds over the last year and had big plans to start a family with her husband. But the Trabuco Canyon hairdresser’s dreams for her future were dashed when her sport utility vehicle collided with a gravel truck at a darkened Lake Forest intersection.

On Tuesday as friends and family gathered beside a makeshift memorial at Portola Parkway and Lake Forest Drive to remember the 34-year-old Ross, authorities said a power failure caused traffic signals and street lights to fail in the area and may have contributed to the crash at 2:30 a.m. Saturday.

Law requires drivers to stop at disabled traffic signals as if they were stop signs, but it’s possible that in the darkness neither driver saw the signals, Orange County sheriff’s officials said.

But alcohol may also have been a factor. Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Doan said the woman behind the wheel of Ross’ Isuzu Trooper has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

Sheriff’s Department officials were awaiting results of blood tests on the driver, who remained unconscious and in critical condition at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center. Doan declined to identify the woman, saying neither she nor her relatives were aware of her arrest.

The driver of the gravel truck was injured but not hospitalized.

Edison Co. regional manager Frank Wasko said the company is trying to determine what caused the power malfunction.

“A rodent could have entered the cables or moisture could have gotten into a component and caused the equipment to fail,” he said. “There’s a variety of things that could have caused it.”

Meanwhile, family and friends were trying to grapple with their loss at a candlelight vigil for Ross at the accident site.

Cars lined a block of Lake Forest Drive at Portola Parkway, and about 400 people crowded a grassy area decorated with balloons, devotional candles, mementos, flowers and photographs of a slender, smiling Ross. As “Dream Weaver” played over a stereo system, about 400 people hugged, lit candles and took turns at a microphone to share stories about Ross.

Longtime friend Casey Jones, who knew Ross from Bible study classes at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, offered words of comfort: “Some of the things God says are the most important in the world--such as love, joy, generosity and family--Lisa had in abundance.”

Niece Mandy Giampaolo, choking back tears, said Ross was her role model. “She was so kind to everyone. . . . She taught me so much. Even though she’s gone, she’s still teaching me. She taught me not to be afraid of death.”

Ross’ brother, Frank Giampaolo, encouraged everyone to exercise “random acts of kindness.”

“Give a pimply faced kid a $5 tip, even if he doesn’t deserve a buck,” he said. “That’s the kind of thing Lisa would do.”

Others remembered Ross as a woman with a quick wit and zest for life, a person who made friends easily.

“She would tell a total stranger, ‘I love your hair’ or ‘I love your outfit,” friend Julie Eder said.

Jeff Ross, Lisa’s husband for eight years, said he was smitten the moment he met her. “She was cutting my hair, and she was so bubbly. She talked so much, I wasn’t sure what to think. She didn’t have an off switch.”

The couple enjoyed weekend jaunts to Las Vegas, Palm Springs and Big Bear, where they would pamper themselves with massages. “She never took one minute for granted,” he said.

It was her desire to live life to the fullest that prompted a night on the town with friends Friday, her husband said.

He had gone to Palm Springs with her father earlier in the day to look at condominiums for sale. Ross and her mother, who together owned a hair salon in Lake Forest, were to meet them the next day.

Friends said Ross and two companions went to Newport Beach. For the ride home, Ross had handed her keys to one of her companions. She was asleep in the back seat when the Trooper and truck collided, authorities said.

The driver suffered a crushed pelvis and other internal injuries, Eder said, adding that the other passenger suffered broken ribs.

Paramedics told the family Ross was probably killed instantly, said Gary Ross, Jeff’s father.

Now, Jeff Ross said, he is haunted by his last conversation with his wife.

“We talked Friday night, and she said she was going out with friends, and I told her to be careful,” Ross said. “Then she said, ‘Aren’t I always?’ And she told me she loved me.”