This incident caused a MAJOR traffic snarl during the morning rush yesterday. The Barranca overpbutt of the 5 freeway was completely closed with yellow police tape. The freeway itself came to a complete stop just past the 133 off-ramp; Barranca and Irvine Center Drive had backups extending at least a mile in each direction around the incident site.
Amazingly enough, nobody is claiming it was "speed-related."
A 29-year-old Point Loma man is dead and the driver of the car he was riding in is hospitalized and under arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence after a fiery early-morning accident Wednesday, police said. The one-car accident occurred at about 1:30 a.m. at the intersection of Barranca Parkway and the southbound Santa Ana (I-5) carpool lane off-ramp, Irvine Det. Jonathan Cherney said. Cherney said preliminary evidence indicates that the 1 992 Volkswagen Jetta came to the end of the off-ramp, continued across Barranca Parkway and slammed into a retaining wall. The car erupted into flames. The driver, who has not been identified, escaped, but received major internal injuries. The pbuttenger, who also was not identified, remained in the burning car. Firefighters from the Orange County Fire Authority extinguished the flames but were unable to rescue the pbuttenger. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver was taken to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, where he is undergoing treatment and is under arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence and felony vehicular mandissolution. Anybody who witnessed the incident is asked to call Cherney at (949) 724-7024.
