Driver Killed, 2 Passengers Injured When Truck Rolls on Toll Road

The driver of a pickup truck was killed and two passengers seriously injured Tuesday when their vehicle skidded into a dirt median and flipped over on the Eastern toll road near Orange, police said.

The accident happened in northbound lanes about 3:30 p.m. just north of Santiago Canyon Road after the truck “sustained some sort of mechanical problem and the driver slammed on the brakes,” the California Highway Patrol reported.

The driver, who was from Riverside, was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, who arrived at the scene after passersby made an unsuccessful rescue attempt. The man’s name was being withheld pending notification of relatives.

Jose Miguel Angulo, 51, also of Riverside, and another passenger, who was not immediately identified by authorities, were taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana with major injuries.

A few hours later and a few miles away in Costa Mesa, a vehicle traveling north on the San Diego Freeway also overturned, causing no major injuries but blocking traffic in all four lanes.

That accident happened about 7:30 p.m. just north of Harbor Boulevard. CHP officers were still at the scene hours later trying to sort out what happened. It was not immediately clear how many people were riding in the vehicle, officer Mark Reeves said.

“It doesn’t look like there’s a major injury,” Reeves said. Because the accident occurred after rush hour, “traffic has not been backed up that bad,” he said.