4 Killed, 4 Injured in 4 Weekend Crashes

Four people were killed and four others injured late Saturday and early Sunday in four Orange County traffic accidents, police said.

Randall Coffey, 18, of Norwalk was killed shortly before midnight Saturday when his Mazda RX-7 hit a tree on Valley View Street south of La Palma Avenue in Buena Park. Police said Coffey might have been speeding while making an illegal lane change where the street narrowed from three lanes to two.

“He either was trying to pass someone or failed to make the transition into the second lane and hit the curb,” said Buena Park Sgt. John Swisher.

Coffey’s car struck a telephone pole, swerved back across the lanes and hit a tree in the center divider, Swisher said.

An unnamed female passenger was thrown from the car but did not suffer life-threatening injuries. She was hospitalized at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

In Huntington Beach, a 20-year-old Long Beach man was killed early Sunday after his vehicle drifted into oncoming traffic and collided with another car.

Police said Matthew Rhoten was headed south on Springdale Street between McFadden and Bolsa avenues about 12:30 a.m. when he struck a car driven by Victor Shaw, 19, of Wildomar in Riverside County.

Shaw’s car burst into flames, and firefighters used power tools to extricate him. Shaw was reported stable with a fractured leg and dislocated hip at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana.

One passenger in Shaw’s car, Thomas Penaflor, 19, of Buena Park, was hospitalized at UCI Medical Center with chest pains and head injuries. The other passenger, Rent Horton, 18, was taken to Long Beach Medical Center with abdominal injuries.

Police said an autopsy and other tests will determine whether Rhoten, who was pronounced dead at the scene, was driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

In the third accident, authorities said Jesse Lee Nixon, 20, was killed shortly before 8 a.m. Sunday when his car veered off Portola Parkway north of Sand Canyon Avenue in Irvine. Nixon was in the Navy and assigned to the aircraft carrier Constellation.

Officials said an investigation was underway and that slick pavement might have contributed to the crash.

In the fourth accident, Brian Carrillo, 34, of Santa Ana died Sunday afternoon after being thrown from his motorcycle into the oncoming lanes of the Orange Freeway in Fullerton.

The Highway Patrol said it was unclear why Carrillo, who was southbound, lost control of his motorcycle about 3:30 p.m. just north of Yorba Linda Boulevard.

The cause of that accident was under investigation, a dispatcher said.