BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS Man who died...

BRIEFLY IN

THE NEWS

Man who died after chase identified

Police identified a 36-year-old Costa Mesa man who died early

Sunday morning after leading police on a 10-mile chase that ended

tragically on the San Diego Freeway, where his car lost control and

skidded off the MacArthur Boulevard offramp and into a tree,

officials said.

Ayurelio Leyva died early Sunday at Western Medical Center in

Santa Ana as a result of a fractured skull and severe injuries,

county coroner’s officials said Monday.

A Costa Mesa Police officer was on routine patrol in the area of

Valencia Avenue and Mendoza Street when he saw Leyva’s car driving

without headlights and running numerous stop signs, Costa Mesa Police

Lt. Dale Birney said.

Leyva refused to pull over and instead accelerated, beginning the

10-mile chase through the streets of northern Costa Mesa and onto the

Bristol Street onramp of the San Diego Freeway, Birney said. Police

continued the chase to MacArthur, where Leyva tried to exit, but lost

control and ran off the road.

“I guess he was traveling too fast to make that loop offramp,”

Birney said.

The California Highway Patrol was called to the scene at 12:49

a.m., Officer Katie Lungren said Monday. The agency’s investigation

confirmed the driver “failed to negotiate the curve of the offramp,”

Lungren said, reading from the report. The car hit the raised

concrete curb and then the tree, she said.

His car flew from the offramp and was stuck in a tree. The

wreckage was untangled from the tree, and Leyva was cut from the car.

He was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, where he later

died from his injuries.

Joseph Lucky, supervising deputy coroner, said Leyva suffered from

a fractured skull and ultimately bled to death because of the “blunt

force trauma” to the head and body.

-- Lolita Harper