Crashes on El Toro Road leave one injured

Multiple car crashes at El Toro Road the morning of Oct. 12 resulted in one vehicle landing in a ravine.

At 1:47 a.m., Laguna Beach police received a call that a car was fleeing the scene of a crash at a pace of 10 mph. After investigating, police learned the vehicle was involved in one of two crashes that morning.

Police said the first crash resulted from a vehicle traveling inbound on El Toro Road that drove off to the right shoulder and struck a support for a power pole across the street, Capt. Jason Kravetz said in an email. The car then slid to the right and down a ravine.

The driver was Simon Haxby, 20, of Irvine, police said. He was uninjured and arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

His 21-year-old female passenger was ejected from the vehicle during the crash and suffered facial injuries. She was taken to Mission Hospital Mission Viejo, Kravetz said.

A second vehicle was traveling outbound on El Toro Road and hit a portion of the broken pole that was in the outbound lanes due to the first crash. The car rolled onto its side and then came back to rest on its wheels, Kravetz said. The driver was uninjured and began to drive away from the scene, a witness reported.

The driver and car were located in Aliso Viejo. Officials discovered he was unlicensed, but he was not arrested. The car was impounded.

A UPS semi-truck driver witnessed the second crash, and when officers arrived to interview him, they noticed Haxby climbing out of the ravine and attempting to flag them down, thus informing them of the initial crash.

Inbound lanes of El Toro Road were closed for a couple of hours as Southern California Edison attempted to get downed wires out of the road.

joanna.clay@latimes.com

Twitter: @joannaclay