Driver, 22, Dies After Crashing Into Truck

A 22-year-old Santa Ana man was killed at 1:55 a.m. Thursday when he plowed into a street-striping crew’s truck on Newport Boulevard near 18th Street--just missing a road worker who was gathering cones, authorities said.

David Robert Chavez, 22, had missed warning lights and cones meant to deter traffic from the street work when his 1993 Honda Accord rear-ended a power lift on the back of the road crew’s 1994 Ford pickup, Police Lt. Ron Smith said.

“They see him approaching in his Honda in the same lane--the fast lane,” Smith said. “They see that he’s not slowing at all, and without breaking, he plows right into that power lift, which drove through the windshield.”

Chavez died instantly. Police estimate that he was driving 60 to 70 mph in a 35-mph zone.

Vince Mel Gonzales, 31, of Santa Ana, was picking up the cones and scurried out of the way unhurt just before Chavez crashed.

Truck driver Randall Wayne Ziegler, 30, of Newport Beach, was slowly backing south in a northbound lane of Newport Boulevard while Gonzales gathered cones, Smith said. He also was uninjured.

Both men are employed with Orange County Striping in Orange. The crew was painting new lines on the road and finishing the job at the time of the wreck.

The work truck sustained minor damage.