SANTA ANA : Crash Kills Woman; Motorist Arrested

A Costa Mesa woman was killed early Friday morning when the car she was riding in was hit by a suspected drunk driver at the intersection of Bristol Street and Edinger Avenue.

Petra Alvarado Martinez, 19, suffered a fatal head injury in the 2:34 a.m. accident and was pronounced dead at the scene, said Officer Gregory Maciha of the Santa Ana Police Department.

Martinez was riding in the front passenger seat of a 1983 Honda Civic station wagon that was being driven by Cecilia Elizabeth Gutierrez of Costa Mesa. Their car was broadsided by a 1982 Buick LaSabre being driven by Reginaldo Rodriguez Ochoa of Santa Ana.

Ochoa, 59, was traveling east on Edinger when he collided with Gutierrez’s car. Ochoa fled the scene of the accident but was later caught by police and arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and felony drunk driving, police said. He was taken to Orange County Jail, Maciha said.

Gutierrez, 22, was injured in the accident and was transported to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where she remains in fair condition. She is suffering from multiple lacerations and abrasions, hospital spokeswoman Fran Tardiff said.

Another passenger in Gutierrez’s car, 21-year-old Lourdes Maria Kanul of Santa Ana, complained of pain after the accident and was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana. She is in stable condition with a leg injury, a hospital official said.

The accident is under investigation, Maciha said.