Update: Body found on Ortega Highway was man who crashed, escaped overturned car before being struck by hit-and-run driver
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – A man in his 20s was able to escape the overturned car he crashed early Friday morning and began walking on Ortega Highway in darkness when about a mile later he was fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver.
Ortega Highway was closed for most of Friday morning, but officials planned to reopen the road in both directions by noon.
California Highway Patrol and Orange County Fire Authority paramedics responded around 4:25 a.m. to reports of a body in the Ortega Highway, between a half-mile to a mile east of Antonio Parkway.
Authorities found a man in his 20s in the roadway after he lost control of a blue Scion around 4 a.m. while driving eastbound on Ortega Highway. He swerved across lanes and crashed the car, causing it to overturn about 150 feet away from the road, officials said.
“He exited from the vehicle and we don’t know why, but he started walking westbound,” CHP Officer Pete Kim said.
Officials said they found his cellphone with a dead battery.
About one-and-a-half miles away, he was walking in darkness possibly in the shoulder on the highway when he struck by westbound driver, Kim said.
OCFA paramedics pronounced the man dead at the scene, OCFA Capt. Steve Concialdi said.
“There was nothing (paramedics) could do for him,” Concialdi said.
Officials said the driver fled the scene in a white 2010, 2011 or 2012 Subaru Impreza, Legacy or Outback, based on vehicle debris found around the man’s body.
No eyewitnesses were initially located.
CHP officials closed down Ortega Highway and issued a SigAlert at 5:45 a.m. between the highway entrance from Gateway Place, about three miles east of the I-5, and the county border, according to the online CHP log.
Authorities planned to open the westbound lane of the highway around 10 a.m. to rotate traffic through the area, but expected the eastbound lane would be closed until around noon.
Anyone with information regarding the crashes has been asked to call California Highway Patrol Investigator J. Kelley at 714-240-3752.
Contact the writer: 714-796-7802 or aduranty@ocregister.com
