COSTA MESA : Driver Fleeing Police Crashes, Injuring 2

A suspected drunk driver who ran a red light while fleeing from police Thursday collided with a pickup truck, critically injuring the other driver and his passenger, police said.

Clarence Henry Jones, 29, of Riverside and his passenger, William B. Ramsey, 64, of Santa Ana were broadsided at Bristol and Baker streets, police said.

The fleeing driver, 23-year-old Costa Mesa resident German T. Zamora, had just eluded police during a brief, high-speed chase that began in central Santa Ana about 3 a.m. when officers had tried to pull him over for speeding, police said.

The pursuing officer lost sight of Zamora in Costa Mesa between Sunflower Avenue and the San Diego Freeway overpass, so the officer quit the chase, police said.

At speeds estimated at 100 m.p.h., Zamora continued two more blocks and through a red light, police said.

The crash littered the street with glass and car parts. Police investigators closed the intersection for about six hours, Officer Steven Rautus said.

Zamora was arrested at the scene on suspicion of felony drunk driving and felony evading arrest, Rautus said.

He was booked into the jail ward at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana and was in stable condition with minor injuries, a hospital spokeswoman said.

His passenger, Sergio Lopez Soberano, 39, of Costa Mesa had minor injuries and was not hospitalized. He was released pending further investigation, police said.

Paramedics took Jones to UCI Medical Center in Orange and Ramsey to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana.

Zamora has a state identification card, but no driver’s license, although an application for one is pending, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

State authorities suspended him twice in 1992, once for drunk driving and once for having an excessive blood alcohol level, records indicate.

Preliminary tests after the collision indicated Zamora’s blood alcohol level was over the legal limit, but they declined to specify.

Police found an open 12-pack of beer in Zamora’s car, and both he and Soberano admitted to police that they had been drinking in Santa Ana, Rautus said.