Crash, gas leak empty homes

Deepa Bharath

Several residents in the Spyglass Hill neighborhood were evacuated in

the wee hours of Wednesday after a car crashed into a gas meter,

causing a gas pipe to break and leak, officials said.

Ryan Kevin O’Connor, 22, a University of Colorado student who

lives on nearby Rocky Point Drive, was arrested an hour after the

crash on suspicion of diving under the influence of alcohol, Newport

Beach Police Sgt. Steve Shulman said.

A 2003 Jaguar rammed into a gas meter at the corner of Morro Bay

and Goleta Point drives at about 2:05 a.m. Wednesday, Shulman said.

“[The driver] then abandoned his car and left the scene,” Shulman

said.

A neighbor who heard the loud noise woke up, looked out the window

and then called the police, Shulman said.

“Another neighbor had seen the driver standing next to the car

right after the crash and was able to identify him as O’Connor and

tell us where he lived,” he said.

The car was badly damaged, Shulman said.

Police officers and firefighters evacuated several residents on

Drake’s Bay and Goleta Point and sent them over to El Capitan Park,

he said.

Newport Beach firefighters could smell the gas when they arrived,

Fire Capt. Chip Duncan said.

“The gas pipe was connected to an emergency generator, which

powered the water pump for Spyglass Hill,” he said.

The ruptured pipe was one inch thick and needed to be plugged

right away because it was a fire hazard, Duncan said.

“But it wasn’t easy because the car had crashed in such a way that

the pipe was under a part of it,” he said. “So I had to crawl under

the car to plug it.”

Even that wasn’t enough to stop the leak. It only helped “slow it

down,” Duncan said.

“The Gas Company had to excavate the street to fix the problem,”

he said.

Residents were let back into their homes by about 2:50 a.m.,

Shulman said.

O’Connor was booked in Newport Beach city jail and was released on

$2,500 bail. He could also be charged with a hit-and-run, Shulman

said.

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.