Update: Victims IDed in Car Crash that Claimed Four

Four people were killed and a fifth was injured today in a single-vehicle crash in San Clemente, where speed and alcohol played deadly factors, investigators said.

Deputies dispatched at 1:30 a.m. to South El Camino Real near the intersection of Avenida Valencia. There they found a BMW 3 series with extensive damage, said Orange County Sheriff's Department Lt. Jeff Hallock.

Four of the victims, three men and a woman, were pronounced dead at the scene, he said.

A fifth person in the vehicle, a 24-year-old woman, was sent to Mission Hospital Regional Trauma Center in serious condition, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi.

“She's in serious condition, but from what I was able to gather, she is expected to survive,” Hallock said.

She was identified by CBS2, which cited friends of the victims, as Josephine Garcia.

Three of those killed in the crash were identified as Martin Junior Nieto, 26, of Laguna Niguel and Pablo Vargas Diaz, 25, and Lucia Garcia Solis, 27, both of San Juan Capistrano, Hallock said.

CBS2 has identified the fourth fatality as Louie Silva, whose age was not released.

Diaz was the car's driver, according to CBS2.

Speed and alcohol were factors in the crash, Hallock said.

Witnesses told officers the vehicle had been speeding southbound in the 900 block of El Camino Real, approaching the Esplanade, when it smashed into a light pole and a palm tree, splitting into two pieces, sheriff's Lt. Dan Dwyer said.

Anyone with information about the crash was urged to contact the sheriff's department at (714) 647-7000 or (949) 770-6011.

– City News Service