2 Killed, 3 Injured as Stolen Pickup Hits Bus Stop, Poles

ANAHEIM —  A stolen pickup truck loaded with young men slammed into a bus stop, two telephone poles and a railroad crossing standard early Thursday, killing two of them and injuring three others, police said.

The 1986 Toyota was reportedly traveling at a high rate of speed when it crashed shortly before 5 a.m., throwing one teen-ager nearly 80 feet, police said. Another passenger was thrown from the truck into a signpost along the street and killed instantly.

The dead were identified as the driver, Raul Rodriguez, 21, and passenger Emilio Sandoval, 19, both of Anaheim. Critically injured were John Bowers, 19, of Anaheim and another passenger whom police were unable to immediately identify. Both were taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange.

The fifth youth, Marco Antonio Gonzales, 17, of Anaheim, was treated at Western Medical Center-Anaheim and released.

Sgt. Harold Parkison said the truck had been reported stolen from Garden Grove sometime after midnight. He said the investigation into the incident is continuing.

Parkison said three people were riding in the back of the truck when the accident occurred. A wheel apparently hit a curb and caused the truck to swerve out of control. It crashed into the bus stop, struck one telephone pole and then another before crashing into the train signal at the intersection of State College Boulevard and Cerritos Avenue.

Southern Pacific Railroad officials said that the speedometer was frozen at 75 m.p.h. and the car was “totally shredded.” They said no trains were involved in the accident.

Parkison said he could not estimate how fast the truck was going when it crashed, but he added, “they were driving a lot faster than I would ever drive.”

He said the passenger in the truck’s cab had to be pried out of the mangled wreckage.

It took firefighters several hours before they were able to remove the body of the driver.