Hours after friends and family held a memorial service Thursday for a bicyclist killed in a Newport Beach traffic accident last week, prosecutors announced that the driver of the involved truck will be arraigned on manslaughter charges Friday.
Jose Luis Huerta Mundo, 38, is charged with vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence, a misdemeanor, and driving without a valid license. He is accused of turning left illegally on Spyglass Hill Road, a maneuver that caused bicyclist Michael Nine, 43, of Santa Ana, to try and swerve out of the way, hitting Mundo's truck.
The collision occurred at Spyglass Hill and Harbor Ridge Drive, a winding, sloped hill north of Corona del Mar. Nine was riding downhill as part of a morning cycling group when he hit the truck, officials said.
The bicyclist was part of a group of about 40 riders who bike from Tustin through Irvine to Newport Beach and back every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. On July 15, Nine and three other lead riders sailed down a right curve on the street at about 40 mph, said fellow rider Jim Weaver, from Tustin.