Countywide : Freeway Accident Victim Identified

A passenger killed in a three-car accident Sunday on the Santa Ana Freeway was identified Monday as Martin Aureleo Ronquillo, 51, of Los Angeles.

The driver of the car, Margarita Lamas Chipres, 49, of Los Angeles, was in critical condition Monday at UCI Medical Center in Orange. She is being treated for smoke inhalation and second-degree burns over 15% of her body, primarily on her back and arms.

The collision occurred about 1:15 a.m. when the right rear wheel of a car going north “just broke right off,” a California Highway Patrol spokeswoman said.

The driver tried to stop but collided with another car. Then a third car crashed into Chipres’ car, touching off a fire.

Paul J. Hochanadel Jr., a disc jockey at an Orange County restaurant, who was headed home moments after the accident, saw the fire and stopped to help.

Hochanadel said he kicked a window open, and with the help of another passerby, pulled Chipres from the fire.

The men tried to pull Ronquillo to safety but the car exploded, Hochanadel said.

In another accident, at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, the driver of a car that plunged 25 feet down an embankment on the Costa Mesa Freeway was identified as Jeffrey Woodruff, 29, of Newport Beach.

His passenger, 41-year-old Rosemary De La Rosa of Costa Mesa, was in critical condition Monday at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana.

Woodruff was traveling 90 m.p.h. in the fast lane, CHP Officer Angel Johnson said, when he changed lanes and “caught up to slower traffic and braked abruptly.” Woodruff lost control of the car, which overturned several times before falling down an embankment near Baker Street, Johnson said.

Both Woodruff and De La Rosa, neither of whom wore a seat belt, were thrown from the car. But as De La Rosa lay critically injured, Woodruff began running, witnesses told the CHP.

Woodruff was arrested and charged with felony drunk driving and felony hit and run. He was taken to the Orange County Jail where he was placed under $10,000 bail. Arraignment was set for today in Harbor Municipal Court.