http://sanjuancapistrano.patch.com/articles/one-dies-in-crash-
near-marco-forster
The car erupted in flames after it fell down an embankment at
Marco Forster Middle School, where passersby witnessed the
gruesome scene.
Updated at 4:50 p.m. Aug. 17 with the driver's name and 9:15
a.m. Aug. 18 with the passenger's name.
One person was killed and another injured when their car tumbled
down an embankment at Marco Forster Middle School and burst into
flames, authorities said.
The injured driver, 21-year-old Alexander Goodrich, of Dana
Point, suffered moderate injuries, and Bryan Ferguson, also 21
and a resident of Dana Point, was pronounced dead inside the
burning vehicle. The accident occurred about 4 p.m.
Authorities are still looking into the cause of the crash. Those
who witnessed it said the Jeep sped down Del Obispo Street,
swerved across the north and southbound lanes and ran a red
light.
[UPDATED: ROADSIDE MEMORIAL SET UP FOR VICTIM OF TUESDAY'S FIERY
CRASH]
Justin Schuda, a varsity coach with Capistrano Valley Christian
School’s baseball team, was holding a catching clinic for a few
players on the ball fields at Marco Forster at the time of the
accident.
“I heard tires screeching and almost like an engine revving,”
Schuda said. He looked up in time to see the car crash through
the fence on Del Obispo and careen toward a maintenance shed.
He was perhaps 40 yards away.
Schuda called 911 and started running toward the car. By the
time he was 10 to 12 feet away, he could see flames.
“The lady on the dispatch said, ‘Please don’t go toward the car,
sir,' " Schuda said.
By that time, other passersby were already trying to help. A man
called to someone for a knife. Schuda said he used the knife to
cut through the driver’s seat belt.
Schuda said the car took maybe 20 seconds to burst into large
flames. “By the time I got there, the little fire coming out of
where the engine was ignited some of the hill, the bushes. It
ultimately got too big. We had to back off.”
Goodrich, once free from the car, appeared to have a leg injury,
Schuda said. “He was saying, ‘Help my friend.’ He was kind of
mumbling. It seemed like he was in shock, too. He walked on his
own power.”
Later in the evening, rescue crews pulled up the car, with
Ferguson's body still trapped inside, from the bottom of an
embankment.
San Juan Capistrano resident Dale Hector said he was driving in
the area when he saw the car speed by. He called 911, then
stopped to help with a fire extinguisher.
"It's not every day when you hear someone die and you can't do
anything about it," Hector said, referring to the screams coming
from inside the vehicle. "You never know when it's your time or
how you will go. My prayers are with that soul and his family."
Traffic was closed in both directions on Del Obispo Street
between Camino del Avion and Vermeulen for several hours while
the Sheriff's Department investigated the cause of the crash.
Comments:
DA
11:19pm on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
While I am extremely sympathetic for the friends and family of
the young man that died, I cannot overlook the fact that it was
reported that 10 people in this circle of friends have died in
the past 18 months. That is an insanely high number. I
understand how devastated the victim's friends must be-and maybe
the use of the word "dumb" is a bit insensitive at a time like
this-but the point, I believe, is that the young people in this
circle of friends are clearly living a reckless lifestyle,
either directly or by association. 10 dead by drug overdose and
violent, fiery high-speed car crashes is a situation that is
screaming for attention. Does this circle of friends see a
pattern here? Is life so meaningless to them that they view this
pattern as normal? To the surviving friends of the driver and
the dead young man-stop living dangerously. Life is fragile.
Reckless driving and drugs are not funny-not at all. Despite how
it feels when you are young-you are not invincible. If you don't
want to take a stranger's word for it, ask Alex Goodrich his
opinion as he is prosecuted for the manslaughter of his friend.
Please grow up. Please stop killing yourselves and endangering
the lives of others. I wish the friends of the dead young man
and Alex Goodrich long life and happiness.
In reality however, the speed and intensity of the fire was fueled by
gasoline and other petroleum based substances in the vehicle.
Obviously, the driver is a climate change denying conservative.
Elmer