4 Killed on State’s Roadways as Busy Travel Season Begins

Motorists packed California’s roadways and snarled traffic late Wednesday and Thursday as four fatalities marred the busiest travel season of the year.

The initial death toll exceeded last year’s Thanksgiving holiday pace, when 61 traffic fatalities were recorded in California during a period from 6 p.m. Wednesday to midnight Sunday. Last year, only one traffic fatality occurred during the first 12 hours.

An alleged drunk driver was booked at the Lakewood sheriff’s station on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter after an accident that killed Larry Munoz, a 35-year-old Westminster man, authorities said.

Adrian Garcia, 20, allegedly ran a red light on Orange Avenue in Paramount shortly after midnight, striking Munoz’s vehicle. Munoz was knocked partly out of his car and pinned by Garcia’s vehicle, which overturned in the collision.

Garcia, who was not injured, attempted to flee but was captured by witnesses, authorities said. He was being held in lieu of $20,000 bail.

In another accident Thursday, seven people were injured in a head-on collision near Malibu when an Oldsmobile traveling north on Malibu Canyon Road veered into a southbound van about 8:35 a.m., the Highway Patrol reported.

Paramedics airlifted two seriously injured victims from the scene, and three others were taken to hospitals by ambulance, authorities said.

The night before, a single-car accident near Lake Elsinore killed an unidentified 31-year-old Hemet woman and seriously injured Tranquilino Maya, 25, of Temecula. A Highway Patrol spokesman said that neither was wearing a seat belt when their car drifted onto the right shoulder on westbound Rancho California Road. When the driver tried to right the vehicle, it overturned and the occupants were thrown out.

In West Oakland, witnesses told the Highway Patrol that Albert McPherson, 65, of San Francisco was killed Wednesday after he lay down on an on-ramp to the southbound 880 Freeway. He was struck by a vehicle whose driver did not stop after the accident.

Another fatality occurred in Merced County when a vehicle plunged into a canal off California 152.