Pickup Truck

A 37-year-old Costa Mesa woman was hospitalized with head injuries after she and her young daughter were struck by a pickup truck on the Westside Monday morning. Sara Estrada, who was pushing her 3-year-old daughter in a stroller at 7:48 a.m., underwent surgery at Western Medical Center in Tustin for cerebral hemorrhaging shortly after the collision. Her daughter was also treated for minor injuries. The mother and child were crossing the street on a green light when the pickup truck hit them in the crosswalk near Wilson Street and College Avenue.

A parole board denied release Thursday for an Irvine woman convicted of murdering her boyfriend in 1998 because she thought he had been unfaithful, the Orange County district attorney's office announced Friday. Judy Diane Valot, 54, is serving 15 years to life at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla for second-degree murder. Eight members of the family of victim Peter Theriault attended the hearing to oppose freeing Valot, who killed him weeks before Christmas and used her pickup truck to dispose of the body.

A crash on the southbound 405 Freeway north of Bristol Street in Costa Mesa on Tuesday afternoon closed most lanes for about an hour, officials said. The California Highway Patrol received a call at about 12:05 p.m. of a multi-vehicle collision, according to CHP Officer Denise Quesada. She added that initial reports indicated that one vehicle may have overturned onto another. The crash involved a white passenger vehicle and a pickup truck, according to CHP Sgt. G. Torres, who said the preliminary investigation indicated that the white car made an unsafe lane change and collided with the truck, causing the truck to overturn.

A 12-year-old Costa Mesa boy was arrested Friday after accidentally setting fire to his home, causing about $90,000 in damages, authorities said. When firefighters arrived at the scene at 4:17 p.m., they found a fire behind the boy's home in the 1500 block of Orange Avenue. A pickup truck, boat, storage shed and wooden fence were in flames. Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Matt Grimmond said the fire started after the boy was "playing around" with matches and lighting leaves on fire. A team of 25 firefighters extinguished the fire within 10 minutes.

BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS Hit and run victim in critical condition A 73-year-old Costa Mesa resident was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana Sunday morning after being hit by a pickup truck that fled the scene. Aniceto Rodriguez was walking eastbound in the crosswalk at West 19th Street and Anaheim Street in Costa Mesa at about 9:30 Sunday morning when a black, full-size pickup truck traveling northbound on Anaheim Street struck him. The truck fled eastbound on West 19th Street after the collision, according to the Costa Mesa Police Department.

Costa Mesa police arrested a 28-year-old Santa Ana man on suspicion of drunk driving after he drove his Ford pickup truck off the road, injuring one of his two passengers early Monday morning, officials said. Ramon Galiana was driving in the 2300 block of Placentia Avenue about 12:34 a.m. when he lost control of the vehicle and hit the curb, police said. The pickup truck then rolled over and, while Galiana and another passenger managed to get out, one other passenger was trapped, Costa Mesa fire officials said.

Nick Contopoulos was running late for work when he rushed out the door Feb. 19 in hopes of making it to the 6 a.m. astronomy course he teaches at Orange Coast College. Behind the wheel of his car, he thought he heard gunfire. "For some reason I said, 'Oh, that's a shotgun.' It just sounded that way," Contopoulos said. Just before he merged from the Santa Ana (5) Freeway onto the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway, the Irvine resident spotted a white pickup stopped ahead of him. As he braked behind the pickup, he saw a man walking with the stock of a shotgun mounted to his shoulder.

BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS Dead body found in back of truck Police arrested four people, including two Costa Mesa residents, on suspicion of murder after they were found with the body of a man in the back of a pickup truck, Huntington Beach police officials said Wednesday. Police arrested Jason Karr, 39, and 19-year-old Erin Brooks, both of Costa Mesa. Also taken into custody were 40-year-old Billy Johnson and Suzanne Miller, 24, both of Huntington Beach, said Huntington Beach Police Capt.

Police asked for the public’s help Wednesday in finding a man who robbed a Chevron gas station clerk over the weekend. Surveillance photos released by authorities show a Latino man, described as 5-foot-7, 160 pounds in his mid-20s with no facial hair wearing a gray, hooded sweater pulling a gun on a clerk about 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the Chevron gas station at 3190 Harbor Blvd. Police said the man approached the clerk, pointed a handgun at the cashier and demanded the money in the register and the safe box. The clerk complied, and the armed robber fled in a black pickup truck.

A man who fell asleep while driving caused a major power outage in Costa Mesa early Wednesday when his pickup truck hit a utility pole on Victoria Street between Canyon Drive and Pacific Avenue, police said. More than 500 Southern California Edison customers were without power as of late Wednesday afternoon, Edison spokesman Marlon Walker said. Victoria Street was closed after the accident and is expected to reopen today, Sgt. Marty Carver said. The pickup truck -- driven by Anthony Oliver Kaa, 24, of Temecula, who was treated for minor injuries -- struck the wooden utility pole, shearing it off at the bottom and causing the wires to drop onto the roadway, Carver said.

A crash on the southbound 405 Freeway north of Bristol Street in Costa Mesa on Tuesday afternoon closed most lanes for about an hour, officials said. The California Highway Patrol received a call at about 12:05 p.m. of a multi-vehicle collision, according to CHP Officer Denise Quesada. She added that initial reports indicated that one vehicle may have overturned onto another. The crash involved a white passenger vehicle and a pickup truck, according to CHP Sgt. G. Torres, who said the preliminary investigation indicated that the white car made an unsafe lane change and collided with the truck, causing the truck to overturn.

Nick Contopoulos was running late for work when he rushed out the door Feb. 19 in hopes of making it to the 6 a.m. astronomy course he teaches at Orange Coast College. Behind the wheel of his car, he thought he heard gunfire. "For some reason I said, 'Oh, that's a shotgun.' It just sounded that way," Contopoulos said. Just before he merged from the Santa Ana (5) Freeway onto the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway, the Irvine resident spotted a white pickup stopped ahead of him. As he braked behind the pickup, he saw a man walking with the stock of a shotgun mounted to his shoulder.

A parole board denied release Thursday for an Irvine woman convicted of murdering her boyfriend in 1998 because she thought he had been unfaithful, the Orange County district attorney's office announced Friday. Judy Diane Valot, 54, is serving 15 years to life at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla for second-degree murder. Eight members of the family of victim Peter Theriault attended the hearing to oppose freeing Valot, who killed him weeks before Christmas and used her pickup truck to dispose of the body.

Accused killer Christopher Dorner was surrounded by police inside a Big Bear area cabin after getting into a gun battle Tuesday that left two San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies injured, officials said. Days ago, Dorner broke into a cabin off Route 38, a source said. He allegedly tied up the couple inside and held them hostage until Tuesday morning when he left. It is unclear whether Dorner stole their vehicle or another, but Fish and Wildlife officers knew to be on the lookout for a white pickup truck when they spotted Dorner driving one and attempted to stop him, the source said.

A 12-year-old Costa Mesa boy was arrested Friday after accidentally setting fire to his home, causing about $90,000 in damages, authorities said. When firefighters arrived at the scene at 4:17 p.m., they found a fire behind the boy's home in the 1500 block of Orange Avenue. A pickup truck, boat, storage shed and wooden fence were in flames. Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Matt Grimmond said the fire started after the boy was "playing around" with matches and lighting leaves on fire. A team of 25 firefighters extinguished the fire within 10 minutes.

A female bicyclist was killed after a hit-and-run accident at about 9:45 a.m. Saturday on Newport Coast Drive between Ocean Vista and Vista Ridge drives, police said in a news release. "A preliminary investigation revealed that a female bicyclist was riding northbound on Newport Coast Drive when she was struck from behind by a black pickup truck," the release said. "The driver of the truck fled the scene without stopping to render aid and continued northbound on Newport Coast Drive.

COSTA MESA — Police now believe the man whose car plowed through a bus bench and across four lanes of traffic Friday night may have driving under the influence. Four people were hurt when the driver of a Dodge Caravan jumped over a curb while trying to leave a Rite Aid parking lot at the corner of 17th Street and Orange Avenue around 8 p.m. The driver, who has not been identified, then knocked down a bus bench and sped across four lanes of traffic before colliding into a pickup truck in a parking lot of a 7-Eleven store, according to police.

A former track star at Corona del Mar High School was driving upward of 90 mph on West Coast Highway when her car swerved into oncoming traffic and triggered a 10-vehicle pileup that killed her and two other people, a family friend who has seen the preliminary police report said Monday. Julia Allen, 27, who went by Julie, was driving eastbound Saturday afternoon on a narrow stretch of Coast Highway along Mariner's Mile, when she broadsided a pickup truck turning left in front of her. The Newport Beach resident's tan-colored Ford Taurus went airborne and landed on a motorcycle and other cars facing west at the Riverside Avenue stoplight.

A pickup truck struck a 12-year-old boy who ran across MacArthur Boulevard in traffic Friday morning, Newport Beach police said. The boy, a seventh-grader at Corona Del Mar Middle School, was on his way to school about 7 a.m. when he ran westbound from Bonita Canyon Road across MacArthur Boulevard, said Newport Beach police Sgt. Evan Sailor. A Dodge pickup southbound on MacArthur struck the boy as he was crossing the street, Sailor said. The truck had a green light at the time of the accident, and the driver does not appear to be at fault, Sailor said.

A Huntington Beach woman is suing former Ultimate Fighting Champion title holder Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, claiming he caused her to miscarry after hitting her SUV on the 55 Freeway during a chase through Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. Holli Griggs, who was more than 16 weeks’ pregnant last July when Jackson sped his lifted pickup truck from the 55 Freeway through Costa Mesa and Newport Beach before surrendering to police, is suing for unlimited damages and is seeking compensation for property and medical expenses and emotional distress.