Teen Crashes SUV In Ladera Ranch, Arrested For DUI

LADERA RANCH, CA — Brianna Shults awoke suddenly from her sleep very early Saturday morning, December 23rd. She glanced at the clock — it was just after 5 a.m.

She couldn’t recall what had woken her up. She just knew she was up — and it was futile to go back to sleep.

Her fiancé slept soundly nearby — so Shults tip toed out to the living room, settled onto the couch and turned on the T.V.

The air was cold. It was in the low 40s overnight. Neighborhood Christmas lights blinked through the window. Santa and his reindeer were just hours away now.

Just one year earlier, Shults and her fiancé moved to the Norman Rockwell-looking bedroom community of Ladera Ranch. They selected the safe and picturesque Laurel Vista Apartment Homes as their primary residence in the months leading up to their upcoming nuptials. Just walking distance to nearby coffee shops, parks, and various trail systems, they had the best of both worlds with Ladera Ranch: far enough away from the heavily traveled and high rise building -dotted central Orange County, but still close enough to all of it with a short mile drive west towards the Pacific Ocean and I-5 San Diego Freeway.

Safety and Ladera Ranch go hand-in-hand. It’s a family, pet friendly community, with a focus on building special, lasting memories for all those who live here. Ladera is very Patriotic and extremely altruistic and charitable. And it’s a very law abiding little town.

Don’t come here to break the law.

So when Shults peeked outside her window shortly after daybreak Saturday and saw a tow-truck — it didn’t strike her as unorthodox.

It was the focus of the tow truck that made her pause, reach for her smartphone and start recording.

“There was a Chevy Tahoe wedged in between a wall and the outdoor fountain of the apartment complex,” Shults said. “The driver apparently lost control at the base of the hill at the roundabout at O’Neill and Dorrance, drove up the hill towards Laurel Vista Apartments, and crashed to a stop in between the fountain and wall.”

“The driver was going so fast [she] cleared the wall of the apartment complex once [she] veered off of the road at the roundabout and made [her] way uphill,” Shults said — still stunned.

“My fiancé and I have heard the cars honking at various times in the night as drivers go around the O’Neill/Dorrance roundabout— and it’s why we wouldn’t rent an apartment on that corner building closest to the roundabout,” Shults said. “A lot of residents in the area were talking about what could possibly have happened — but no one knew for sure.”

Until now.

According to Orange County Fire Authority Captain PIO Larry Kurtz, OCFA firefighter/paramedics responded to the scene Saturday morning following a report of a Chevy Tahoe being wedged in between a wall and outdoor fountain of an apartment complex in Ladera Ranch.

OCFA firefighters arrived to find that the female driver was not trapped inside her vehicle and she did not require a medical transport, Kurtz said. However, the Tahoe had sheared a walkway light pole before crashing and live electrical wires were temporarily exposed.

“The good news is that all of the damage was to the vehicle and to surrounding property,” Kurtz said. “What is important is that no serious injuries to people or bystanders occurred.”

According to California Highway Patrol Public Information Officer for the Capistrano Area, Officer Rafael Reynoso, a 911-call was made around 5:10 am Saturday reporting a Chevy Tahoe crashed and the driver was “possibly DUI.”

CHP officers arrived on scene soon thereafter.

“An 18-year old Laguna Niguel female driver of a Chevy Tahoe collided into a concrete wall at Laurel Vista Apartments near the roundabout of O’Neill Drive and Dorrance Drive in Ladera Ranch,” Reynoso said. “The driver also collided with a street lamp.”

Reynoso said the 18-year old female driver failed a CHP issued field sobriety test at the scene, was arrested and booked at the Orange County Jail that morning.

“While the investigation is still ongoing,” Reynoso said, “It is believed that DUI and speed were factors in the traffic collision.”

Reynoso said the CHP report taken on Saturday did not indicate that the female was asleep at the wheel, as some residents later speculated.

“CHP Officers were on scene for a few hours that morning,” Reynoso said. “A crane was needed to lift the vehicle out of the apartment complex. It was a long drawn out incident.”

Photos/Video Copyright Brianna Shults

Video Of Aftermath of Crash in Ladera Ranch Saturday Captured By Brianna Shults:
https://www.facebook.com/RPGNe...