Crash Suspect Sought in Southland : Search: Police aren’t convinced that Fernando Flores, believed driving truck in accident that killed 8, has left for Mexico. Shocked co-workers praise Flores.

Police continued their search Thursday in Southern California for a 23-year-old busboy suspected of plowing a pickup truck into a church van, killing eight, but a friend said the man fled to Mexico days ago.

Police Lt. Bob Helton said investigators have a hunch that Fernando Hernandez Flores did not leave the country after the crash Sunday in the city’s bustling Civic Center.

“There’s no independent evidence at this point that suggests he went to Mexico,” Helton said. “We really don’t know where he is. . . . There’s been nothing to convince us, to demonstrate that he has left the country.”

Julio Ramirez, a co-worker at Chili’s Grill & Bar in Riverside, where Flores had worked for the last three years, said Flores called the Ramirez house after the accident and told his brother, Oscar, another busboy, that he was scared and planned to head to Mexico.

“He was just scared, you know,” said Julio Ramirez, whom Flores trained as a busboy at the restaurant. “So he was thinking, ‘I should just get out of here and go to Mexico.’ He thought he saw many people in the van, so he said, ‘When I crashed the van, probably all the people are dead.’ I think that he thinks that the best thing to do would be to go to Mexico.”

Flores does not have a California driver’s license, according to state Department of Motor Vehicles records. Nonetheless, he was stopped twice in Riverside on the same day in 1990 and cited for violations ranging from defective taillights to lack of proper insurance, the records say. He failed to appear in court or pay the fines on the tickets, a DMV spokesman said.

At Chili’s restaurant Thursday, workers said they were surprised when Flores abruptly quit Sunday night, saying he had to return to Mexico to help his sick mother. But they were shocked to learn from newscasts Wednesday night that Flores was a suspect in the accident, the most deadly in Orange County history. They said he didn’t drink very much, was reliable, hard-working and friendly.

“They’re pretty much shocked,” said Ray Calderon, the restaurant’s manager. “Their main comment is: ‘Of all people--Fernando!’ They can’t believe it.”

Calderon said Santa Ana police were at Chili’s on Thursday interviewing employees. He described Flores as “a fantastic guy and hard worker.”

“He’s just a real nice guy,” said waiter Devin Atherton, 28. “Everybody loves him. He’s going to be made out to be a real bad guy, but he was the most popular employee here. Just a real sweet guy.”

Waitress Chris Billets, 41, said: “My heart’s broken. He was one of the nicest people you’d probably want to know in your life. It’s just an awful, awful thing.

“He wasn’t a person to drink. Nothing like that. He worked a lot, he worked hard. Just a real sweetheart. Just a good, good friend. He’d give you the shirt off his back. He had to have just been scared.”

Irma Reyes, whose husband is a dishwasher at Chili’s, said she had rented a room to Flores in the family house on Wells Avenue in Riverside.

Reyes said Flores moved out Sept. 15, a few days before the accident, saying he planned to move to Los Angeles.

Helton said police expect to seek an arrest warrant for Flores by the end of the week or early next week. If a warrant is granted, Flores’ name would be entered into the state’s criminal computer network, and other law enforcement agencies would be alerted.

If police determine that Flores has fled to a specific city or region in Mexico, they might try to get help from Mexican authorities, Helton said.

The crash occurred about 6 p.m. Sunday at Flower Street and Civic Center Drive. Of 11 people injured, Mainor Mendez, 11, of Garden Grove was in fair condition Thursday at UCI Medical Center in Orange; Mirtala Castro Lopez, 50, of Santa Ana was in good condition at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, and Glenda Aguirre, 21, of Westminster, was released from the Mission Viejo hospital. Others were released earlier.