Pick-up hits divider on S-curve

There was another accident this weekend along a stretch of Irvine Avenue that some locals refer to as “Dead Man’s S-curve,” but police say it’s not as treacherous as it sounds.

Paramedics rushed Richard Darryl Foster, 48, of Santa Ana to the hospital on Sunday after his 1973 Ford pick-up truck crashed into a center divider and knocked down a U-turn sign at about 7:40 p.m. on southbound Irvine Avenue at Heather Lane, Lt. Jim Kaminsky said. He was later booked on suspicion of driving under the influence, police said. After Foster was arrested he was released on his own recognizance, police said.

The red and white pick-up flipped over twice and slid approximately 70 feet to the opposite end of the intersection striking another sign, Kaminsky said.

Foster was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana. Hospital officials refused to release details about his injuries.

Since 1999 there have been 23 crashes that resulted in some sort of injury along Irvine that curves between Monte Vista Avenue and Santiago Drive. The injuries range from minor to serious, Kaminsky said.

“The statistics are deceiving because we don’t know what type of injuries these are,” Kaminsky said. “It could even involve a complaint of [minor] pain.”

The last time someone died in a crash there was in April 2003 when 47-year-old Lake Forest resident Susan Hinton-Rausch was killed after skidding over the edge into the Newport Back Bay

The most highly publicized fatal crash was 10 years ago when a Chevy Blazer with several Newport Harbor High students in it overturned, killing 18-year-old Donny Bridgman and seriously injuring teens Amanda Arthur and Daniel Townsend. After coming out of a coma and enduring years of therapy, Amanda now lives in Irvine with her husband Mike Edwards and their 3-month old daughter.

The main problem with the curvy road is that drivers often do not approach it with caution, Kaminsky said.

“The underlying factor in accidents and this stretch of roadway is speeding,” Kaminsky said. “North and South are straightaways — when people approach these curves [they] don’t heed the reductions in speed and continue going as fast as the straightaway they were just on.”

Cameron Pemstein, 22, said he took photographs of Foster as he was lifted into an ambulance.

“He was bloody and his face way cut up,” Pemstein said. “I think he was coherent because the paramedics were talking to him. They weren’t trying to revive him or anything.”

Pemstein was not fazed by the tricky curve in the road.

“Personally I love the S-curves. I drive fast,” he said. “I don’t have a fear of them. There’s just stupid people on the road.”