Laguna Beach : Motorist Arrested After Crashing Into Police Car

A woman was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving early Monday after her auto allegedly ran a stop sign and hit a police patrol car, causing minor injuries to a police officer.

The accident occurred about 4 a.m. just outside the entrance to the police station, Sgt. Ray Lardie said Monday.

Officer Todd Solomon was turning left from Forest Avenue to 3rd Street when a Volkswagen driven by Lori Ellen Siquijor, 25, of Laguna Hills allegedly ran a stop sign and hit the left rear of Solomon’s patrol car, Lardie said.

Police said the accident occurred as Solomon was responding to a complaint about a disturbance involving three woman at a residence on 3rd Street. A spokesman for the California Highway Patrol said Siquijor apparently had been involved in the disturbance.

“She had been coming from the place he (Solomon) was going to,” California Highway Patrol Sgt. Tom Draper said.

Siquijor was taken by ambulance to the South Coast Medical Center, where she was treated for a broken nose, jaw and cheekbone, and a swollen forehead, Draper said. CHP investigators believe the bone fractures occurred before the accident, Draper said, although Siquijor was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the collision.

“In his (the investigator’s) mind, these injuries did not occur in the accident,” Draper said. “They did not hit that hard.”

Draper said that Siquijor’s 1968 Volkswagen sedan, which had minor damage to the front fender, was moving about 10 to 20 m.p.h. at the time of the collision. The left rear door and fender of Solomon’s patrol car were damaged, Lardie said.

CHP officers arrested Siquijor at the hospital, where she was released on her own recognizance, Lardie said.

Solomon was treated at the hospital for a bump on the head and minor cuts and was later released, Lardie said.