2 More Killed in Holiday Accidents

A 15-year-old girl from Rowland Heights and a 38-year-old Costa Mesa man died Monday in separate traffic accidents, bringing to five the number killed on Orange County roadways over the Memorial Day weekend, authorities said.

Last year, the California Highway Patrol logged only one traffic fatality in Orange County.

In all, 47 people statewide died in traffic accidents during the three-day holiday weekend, up 57% from 30 deaths in 1995, the California Highway Patrol said Monday. Rob Lund, a spokesman for the CHP’s Southern Division, said it was unclear why traffic fatalities jumped this year.

In Orange County, the Monday fatalities were a teenager on her way to the beach with friends and a bicyclist who pedaled into an intersection that has been the scene of several accidents in recent weeks.

Kathleen Sharp, 15, died when the sport utility truck she was riding in hit a guardrail on the Santa Ana Freeway, throwing her into the path of an oncoming station wagon, which struck and killed her, California Highway Patrol officials said.

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Sharp, who was not wearing a seat belt, had been sitting in the back compartment of a Chevrolet Blazer next to a surfboard when the 9:55 a.m. accident occurred in Santa Ana. Investigators said that because the truck’s back seat was laid down to accommodate the surfboard, the seat belt was inaccessible.

Sharp was pronounced dead at the scene, said CHP Sgt. Diane Hartz said.

The driver of the truck, a 16-year-old girl also from Rowland Heights, was exiting the freeway at Main Street at a high rate of speed, investigators said.

Sharp was thrown from the vehicle, falling over the off-ramp bridge and into the northbound lanes, Hartz said.

“The seat belt could have saved her life,” Hartz said. “She shouldn’t have been in that location without a seat belt. . . . If you’re going to carry something that’s too big to fit in the car safely, then get a car carrier, or a rack or whatever it might be” to properly transport the object.

The driver and a 16-year-old male passenger who was in the front seat suffered minor injuries.

The day’s second fatal accident occurred in Costa Mesa when Mark A. Asbury was struck by a car as he rode his bicycle across Fairview Road on Paularino Avenue at 2:18 p.m.

Asbury, who lived a few blocks away, was dragged more than 40 feet by the car, whose driver was not cited.

The driver “said he was just driving down the street and the bicyclist was just in front of him. He didn’t know where he came from,” Costa Mesa Police Officer Eric Reinholtz said.

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The accident occurred in front of about eight witnesses, some of whom had just finished speaking with Asbury just moments before.

Asbury, who was not wearing a bicycle helmet, was pronounced dead at Western-Medical Center in Santa Ana.

That intersection has been the site of several accidents in recent weeks, police said, but none of them involved fatalities.