Traffic Accidents Kill 4 in County

At least four people died in traffic accidents across Orange County Friday, police said.

On the Artesia Freeway in Buena Park, Socorro Rios, 34, of La Habra died at 1:17 a.m. when a Chevy Blazer driving on the shoulder struck her disabled Honda Accord at 70 mph, the California Highway Patrol said. The Blazer’s driver, Shaun Blas, 21, was hospitalized.

At 5:14 a.m., Jo Rabenold of Long Beach called CHP to report that she had run over a man lying on the Beach Boulevard offramp of the eastbound Garden Grove Freeway. When officers arrived, they couldn’t find the man, said CHP spokesman Sergio Flores.

Later, someone reported a body on Stanford Avenue just west of Fern Street in Garden Grove. Flores said another car apparently hit and dragged the body. It was dislodged, and the driver fled, Flores said. The man was identified as Richard Denison, 67, of Midway City. Authorities had not determined when he died or why he was on the offramp.

At 8:45 a.m. in Tustin, Maria Guadalupe Engstrom, 31, of Costa Mesa was driving a Ford Escape north on Jamboree Road when she crossed the median into opposing traffic. She died when her car was broadsided by a Mercedes Benz, police said. The Mercedes driver was treated for minor injuries. Jamboree was closed between Walnut Avenue and Barranca Parkway until 5:53 p.m.

At 9:01 a.m. on the Costa Mesa Freeway in Orange, Donald Hibbard, 36, of Corona was fatally injured when his Honda Accord drifted onto the shoulder and smashed into a bridge abutment, CHP officials said.

At 5 p.m. in Irvine, a Metrolink train was delayed an hour after it struck a pickup abandoned at Sand Canyon Road. No one was hurt.