A woman was killed in a two-vehicle crash in Irvine on Wednesday night, and police arrested the driver of a Mercedes-Maybach on suspicion of driving under the influence. The collision happened at Harvard Avenue and Paseo Westpark, trapping the woman inside her Toyota Corolla until firefighters could cut her free.
According to KTLA, the Irvine Police Department received the report of the collision around 9:06 p.m., sending officers and Orange County Fire Authority crews to the intersection. The woman was driving the Corolla and was pinned inside the wreckage when crews arrived; firefighters worked to extricate her before she was transported to Orange County Global Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.
The driver of the Mercedes-Maybach, described only as an adult male, was detained at the scene. Irvine police spokesperson Ziggy Azarcon said he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, per the same report. Authorities had not released the identities of either the woman who died or the man who was arrested as of the report.
What Investigators Still Don't Know
Police have not said whether speed or any other factor played a role in the crash, and the circumstances remained under investigation, the outlet reported. Investigators were expected to remain at the scene for several hours as they worked to piece together what happened. Anyone with information about the collision was urged to contact the Irvine Police Department.
A Pattern of Deadly Crashes on Irvine Roads
This is not the first fatal crash to rattle Irvine in recent years. In November 2021, two people were killed when a GMC Yukon struck a stopped Honda Civic on the southbound Santa Ana Freeway, according to the Orange County Register. The driver in that case, Jorge ErastoCruz, 37, of Lake Forest, later pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder along with multiple DUI-related felonies.
An earlier tragedy also struck close to Wednesday's crash site. The City of Irvine reported that three people were killed and a fourth was hospitalized after a November 2019 collision on Harvard Avenue near University Drive.
Statewide, alcohol-impaired driving fatalities have shown a modest decline in recent years. According to the California Office of Traffic Safety, fatalities involving a driver or motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher dropped roughly 4.5%, from 1,419 in 2022 to 1,355 in 2023. Under California law, a driver with a BAC of 0.08% or higher at the time of driving creates a rebuttable presumption of impairment in a prosecution, according to California Legislative Information.
For now, the woman's identity and that of the arrested driver remain unknown, and the central question of what caused the crash at Harvard and Paseo Westpark is still being sorted out by investigators.
