Costa Mesa Man Suspected Of DUI In Fatal Crash With Uber Car
COSTA MESA (CBSLA.com) — A 19-year-old Costa Mesa man was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of drunk driving following a collision that killed a passenger in an Uber car.
Porfirio Sandoval was arrested on suspicion of felony DUI after the 1:35 a.m. crash in the 700 block of Baker Street, which killed 29-year-old Julia Gardner of Irvine, Costa Mesa police Lt. Greg Scott said.
The Uber driver, Frank Rugnetta, 43, of Irvine, was treated at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange for chest pains.
A 29-year-old man from Huntington Beach, who was the second passenger in the Uber car, was treated at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana for chest pain, Scott said.
Sandoval was also treated for chest pain at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, then booked at Costa Mesa jail. He is being held on $100,000 bail.
Rugnetta had picked up his two passengers at the Huddle bar, 741 Baker St., and was exiting the parking lot when his Ford Escape was struck by Sandoval's BMW 540i, which was driving east on Baker, Scott said.
A grieving Gardner family provided CBS2 and KCAL9 with the following statement: "There has been a constant overflow of people in our home who continually say Julia was, is and always will be their favorite person. She exuded pure joy and every day was the best day of her life. Her laughter was infectious, she radiated love to every room she walked into and her dance moves were unparalleled. She truly saw her family as friends and her friends as family. Losing her burns a hole in all of our hearts that will never fully heal. Anne Lamott said it best 'It's like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.' So we keep dancing because she is with God having the best dance party of her life."
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