Separate Orange County Crashes Leave Two Dead, Three Injured
Two people were killed and three injured in two South County accidents Friday evening.
In the first, about 8 p.m. in an unincorporated area near Rancho Santa Margarita, the driver of a pickup died when the truck hit a fire hydrant at Meandering Trail and Crestview, said Aaron Reich of the California Highway Patrol.
The driver’s name was not released, and the accident remains under investigation.
The second accident occurred about half an hour later when a Mercedes traveling south on Pacific Coast Highway near Ritz Carlton Drive in Dana Point veered into the oncoming lane and struck an SUV, said Jim Amormino of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
A man -- described only as aged 18 to 21 -- was declared dead at the scene, Amormino said, and a male passenger about the same age was taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo in extremely critical condition.
Two people in the SUV -- a man and his 13-year-old daughter -- were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, he said.
No names were released, and the cause of the accident is under investigation.
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