LOS ANGELES TIMES
ORANGE COUNTY
By Mai Tran, Times Staff Writer
A driver racing his new Porsche was killed late Tuesday when he lost control, struck a guardrail, soared off the Costa Mesa Freeway, flew through a stand of trees and plunged 23 feet before landing nearby on the San Diego Freeway, authorities said.
Investigators said the victim, Michael Hanson, 23, of San Diego, was hurled into the northbound lanes of the freeway, where his body was hit by several cars and decapitated.
Hanson, whose driver's license was reinstated only last month after a 2002 speeding conviction, was probably traveling 100 mph at the time of accident, authorities said.
"The belt was buckled in but the sheer force of the speed and the impact was extreme enough that it didn't matter," said CHP Officer Colleen Richardson.
The silver Porsche, so new it did not yet have license plates, apparently clipped a Toyota Corolla as it touched down in the San Diego Freeway's southbound lanes.
Witnesses said Hanson lost control of his car when he "attempted to catch or race" a small black vehicle on the Costa Mesa Freeway in heavy traffic at about 10 p.m. Tuesday — an hour at which motorists were leaving the Orange County Fair, Richardson said.
Hanson veered right to avoid hitting a slower-moving vehicle and smacked the guardrail, ripping 25 feet of the barrier from its wood post. The car veered up an embankment before becoming airborne and landing on the freeway below. After the driver was ejected, the Porsche slammed into the center divider and burst into flames, officers said.
"It was burned so bad, we didn't even know what color it was," Richardson said. "It was new so it wasn't registered and it didn't have any plates. We had to ask witnesses."
The driver of the Corolla, Yvonne Suhendra, was treated at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo and released.
The northbound lanes of the San Diego Freeway were closed for four hours as police collected evidence.
Investigators were searching Wednesday for the driver of the black car.
"Normally we're dealing with measuring one or two lanes of a freeway [during an accident investigation]. There's a lot to measure for this," Richardson said.
