Coto De Caza Fiery Crash: All Four Good Samaritans Located

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CA — On Friday November 3rd, Coto de Caza resident Eben Benade was at home for the night when he heard the horrific sounds of an automobile out of control crash around 10:37 p.m. -- driven by a motorist who would later be arrested for felony DUI and speeding.

The crash sounded so loud, Benade thought the incident was on his street. He went outside to investigate and was met with smoke and flames emanating from the street behind his private, guard-gated Coto de Caza estate.

Having medical training, Benade’s instincts were to help. He jumped into his truck and drove towards the smoke and flames.

Simultaneously, Matt Nellor, a young Concordia University grad just 27-years old, sat studying a menu in his Coto de Caza home in preparation for his position as a member of the wait staff of Houston’s, an upscale restaurant in Irvine at the 405 on Jamboree Road featuring American cuisine.

Nellor, the captain of Irvine’s Concordia University Eagles swim team his senior collegiate year, heard the crash, sprang from his studies and intuitively ran out to the front of the residence to investigate the noise —

sounds too loud and very out of character for the rural, quiet and exceptionally exclusive South County master-planned suburb of Coto de Caza, the birthplace of Bravo TV’s “The Real Housewives of Orange County.”

Standing in the front yard barefoot, Nellor could see the smoke and flames rising in the not too far distance.

Also standing nearby were the children of Benade— who informed Nellor that their father had just left in his truck in an effort to help at the alleged crash site.

That was all Nellor needed to hear. He too felt compelled to help somehow. He ran towards the smoke and continued running — without shoes, until he arrived on scene. His athletic conditioning as an undergrad swimmer prepared him for the late-night, moonlit sprint. Shadowy outlines of the jagged Saddleback Valley mountain range far in the distance.

Benade arrived at the surreal scene in south Coto de Caza at the roundabout that merges Vista Del Verde, Devonwood Drive and Tipu Run shortly after he heard the metal frame of the automobile crashing around 10:37 P.M.

Benade could see a heavily damaged 2013 Volkswagen Bug lying on its side, on fire, with two people trapped inside. He could hear the cries of a female passenger, a 44-year old woman from Rancho Santa Margarita, the CHP report would later reveal.

Benade was not alone in his efforts to help that night. Two friends, each only 16-years of age, had also arrived at the ill-fated roundabout— on their way home from a high school football game that their school, Santa Margarita Catholic High School, had just won.

The Santa Margarita teens, Jeffrey Bounds and Alex Schrier, both of Coto de Caza, were friends since middle school and also teammates on Santa Margarita’s baseball team. They themselves had a baseball game Saturday.

Benade’s instincts to aid the sick and fallen kicked in and he began assessing the scene — quickly, without hesitation, as the burning vehicle in front of them would be fully engulfed soon.

Nellor arrived shortly after Benade. That made an instant team of four — three of them well-conditioned athletes who each played for academic institutions whose mascot was an “Eagle.”

While Schrier was on the phone with 911, Benade instructed Bounds to grab a rock and they would attempt to break open the sunroof— the only way in for them, and the only possible way out for the two people inside.

The rock was too small — so Benade grabbed a flashlight and used the metal end to smash open the sunroof.

Once they cleared the glass — Benade, Bounds, and Nellor saw what lay in front of them: a woman crying in pain for help, as the driver — a 24-year old male from Trabuco Canyon, lay on her lap, unconscious. CHP officers later determined he was not wearing a seatbelt.

Benade reached into the car and was able to determine the driver was not dead — he had a pulse.

The Good Samaritans worked to pull him through the sunroof, his body heavy and limp from his unconscious state.

Nellor reported to authorities that as they pulled the driver through the sunroof, the car surrounded with rapidly growing fire, the man began to regain consciousness slowly. Once semi-alert, the driver was in a state of confusion and grabbed onto the car and wouldn’t let go. The driver, severely injured and legally impaired, proved no match for the group and they pulled him out of the car and moved him to safety.

Benade told authorities that he knew “he was risking his life to save others” that night, but he was focused on saving the two people from a fiery death.

“It was the right thing to do,” Benade told authorities. “The car was on fire.”

Bounds attested to Benade taking control of the scene that night, giving orders to the others on what to do.

They literally had minutes.

The group were able to successfully retrieve both the driver and female through the sunroof and pull them away from the vehicle before it succumbed to the flames entirely.

During the rescue, Benade cut open his forehead and bruised his arm. Nellor suffered cuts to his unprotected feet from the vehicle’s broken glass spread across the asphalt haphazardly.

“This call is evidence that there are good people that will stop what they're doing and immediately render aid to others in need,” said OCFA Captain PIO Steve Concialdi. “All four of these individuals are great examples of what a true Good Samaritan is.”

“There are two people alive today because of the selfless actions of these four individuals — who became a crew of Good Samaritans,” Concialdi said.

The Orange County Fire Authority will recognize all four Good Samaritans for their Life Saving actions Thursday at its 6 p.m. regular Board of Directors meeting at headquarters, 1 Fire Authority Road, Irvine.

The meeting is open to the public.

The collision could have been the 4th and 5th traffic fatalities for Coto de Caza since 2005 if not for the quick actions of the Good Samaritans that night.

The City of Rancho Santa Margarita will formally recognize the Good Samaritans at its City Council meeting December 13th in RSM.

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY STUDY FROM 1970s REVEALS WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO HELP IN AN EMERGENCY SITUATION

In the 1973 Princeton University study, “From Jerusalem to Jericho: A Study of Situational and Dispositional Variables in Helping Behavior” by John M. Darley and Batson, the authors looked at the influence of several situational and personality variables on helping behavior in emergency situations as suggested by the parable of the Good Samaritan.

“Helping other people in distress is, among other things, an ethical act,” Darley and Batson wrote. “That is, it is an act governed by ethical norms and precepts taught to children at home, in school, and in church.”

The authors found that in regards to Overall Helping Behavior, “Subjects in a hurry were likely to offer less help than were subjects not in a hurry. The subjects in a hurry were more likely to pass by the victim than were those in less of a hurry.”

“Finally, as in other studies, personality variables were not useful in predicting whether a person helped or not,” Darley and Batson wrote. “But in this study, unlike many previous ones, considerable variations were possible in the kinds of help given, and these variations did relate to personality measures—specifically to religiosity of the quest sort.”

“How a person helps involves a more complex and considered number of decisions, including the time and scope to permit personality characteristics to shape them,” Darley and Batson wrote.

GOOD SAMARITANS IN COTO DE CAZA SHOW UP BIG TIME AT ROUNDABOUT OF VISTA DEL VERDE, TIPU RUN AND DEVONWOOD DRIVE AT 10:37 PM. FRIDAY NOVEMBER 3RD

EARLIER THAT NIGHT Friday Nov. 3rd, the SMCHS teens enjoyed watching their fellow Eagles football team beat Orange Lutheran 38 to 31 in the last regular season game. By Santa Margarita winning, they secured third place in the Trinity League. Playoffs began Friday, Nov. 10th. The Eagles come from behind victory Friday Nov. 3rd in the last 15 minutes of the game left everyone feeling elated and excited that night.

Bounds and Schrier headed home after Santa Margarita’s big football win to turn in early, opting out of after game celebrations, but found themselves in the middle of a life and death situation for two strangers. Risking their own lives to help two people stranded in the middle of a gasoline and automotive materials laced firestorm.

They were almost home until they happened onto the roundabout.

Coto de Caza is a guard-gated private community located in the northern portion of Wagon Wheel Canyon in southeast Orange County. Coto is Orange County’s oldest and most expensive master-planned communities with 4,000 homes and approximately 15,000 residents. The community has two 18-hole golf courses, two clubhouses and is home to the 24-acre Coto Equestrian Center which was used during the 1984 L.A. Olympics for equestrian events.

“The two teenagers arrived at the scene and saw the vehicle on fire,” said Concialdi. “They could see that there were people trapped inside the car and knew they needed to act quickly.”

As some vehicles proceeded past the accident scene, other bystanders began to arrive.

Neighbors near the site heard the accident and could see the flames and also called for help.

“OCFA firefighters heading to the scene could see from a distance the header of smoke and flames and hoped everyone had escaped the vehicle,” Concialdi said. “This was a violent crash with a vehicle fully involved in active fire.”

“These boys did the right thing,” Concialdi said. “They came across a serious accident on their way home. They knew there were people trapped inside. They were taught well by their parents and school to remain calm in an emergency situation – and to help.”

OCFA firefighters arrived on scene and quickly extinguished the toxic flames – filled with gasoline and other automotive chemicals; and prevented the already life-threatening situation from extending into a vegetation fire given the vehicles proximity to trees, shrubs and residential homes.

As firefighters took over, bystanders stood back and some captured the graphic images that have since gone viral on social media (@OCFA_PIO Twitter) how lucky the vehicle’s occupants were that the Good Samaritans that stopped, did so – and saved their lives.

The images show a paralyzed vehicle rolled on its passenger side engulfed in rapid, angry flames – growing in intensity with gasoline, oil and other flammable automotive materials, and a silhouette of an open sunroof, revealing the fires rage and destruction of every inch of the interior of the vehicle matching its revenge on the exterior.

“These boys can probably do anything they want to in life – but for sure, they would make excellent firefighters,” Concialdi said. “They did the right thing in an intensely difficult, life-threatening situation.”

Both occupants suffered major injuries from the crash. The 24-year old male driver, of Trabuco Canyon, suffered a broken neck, and his passenger, a 44-year old female from Rancho Santa Margarita, suffered a fractured clavicle and pneumothorax, according to the CHP.

SMCHS, PARENTS OF GOOD SAMARITANS VERY PROUD OF TEENS

“We are so proud of Alex and Jeffrey,” said SMCHS President Andy Sulick. “It is a tribute to the parents of these young men that they had the bravery, instinct and Grace to get in there and help.”

“What they did is such a spectacular display of courage,” Sulick said. “We are so thankful that no one died.”

“After hearing about what Alex and Jeffrey did, I thought about the last sentence of our school’s Mission Statement, and how well they fulfilled it Friday night,” Sulick said. “It says ‘We seek to encourage in our students…. a desire to contribute positively to both the global community and the immediate society in which they live.”

“Kudos to these boys,” Sulick said. “I am proud of them as students, kudos to them for raising great sons.”

“JEFF, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR BASEBALL UNIFORM IS WASHED…”

Proud parents Roseann and Steve Bounds couldn’t be happier with the actions their son and friend did Friday night. But for an hour on Friday night, while Jeff was helping to rescue two people trapped in a burning car, his Mom couldn’t figure out why her son was not responding to her texts reminding him to please make sure he washed his baseball uniform for Saturday’s game.

“Jeff is our baby,” Roseann said. “We have an older son in college.”

“Jeff is just that good kid,” Roseann said about her son. “We are not surprised at all learning about what he and Alex did. Jeff is a work ethic kind of a kid. He has always had to carry his weight. He was always the kid that was helping. We are just so proud of both of them.”

“I was at home on Friday night waiting for him to come home from the football game so I could wash his baseball uniform,” his incredibly loving and kind Mom said. Roseann said she sent him text after text about making sure he gave her his baseball uniform to wash before she headed to bed.

Eventually – she gave up and texted him once more: this time telling him she was headed to bed and to make sure he washed his uniform before going to sleep.

Roseann said her son came home Friday. Put his baseball uniform in the wash before heading to his parents room to say goodnight.

“You’ll never believe what just happened….” he said.

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS REDUCED SPEEDS FOR COTO DE CAZA ROADS IN JULY – RESIDENTS STILL CONCERNED GIVEN HISTORY OF TRAFFIC RELATED FATALITIES ON THEIR PRIVATE ROADS

RIANNA WOOLSEY. MORTEZA MANIAN. FRANZ NALEZNY. FINDING AN ENFORCEMENT STRATEGY RESIDENTS ARE WILLING TO LIVE WITH

Residents still grieve and remember each fatality. They note every white equestrian fence plowed into. Every roundabout with a vehicle parked under a tree bed and a CHP car nearby writing down the accident details.

Since 2005, there have been three traffic related fatalities in the exclusive, guard gated community of Coto de Caza. The community reeled from the vehicle crash of 16-year old Tesoro High School song leader Rianna Woolsey, who passed December 7, 2005. Morteza Manian, 75, was bicycling on a Sunday when he was struck and killed by a driver on March 12, 2006. The third fatality was of 22-year old college student Franz Nalezny, who died after he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a residential wall on January 31, 2014.

Nalezny was driving under the influence according to the CHP.

“I can confirm the crash was DUI related. THE OCSD coroner’s report revealed Mr. Nalezny was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the collision,” said CHP SJC PIO Rafael Reynoso.

The property management team for Coto de Caza, Keystone Pacific Property Management, provided the following statement in regards to the crash on November 3rd.

“Since an investigation into the event last Friday are still ongoing, the company does not have a comment at this time,” said Arianna Barrios, Communications LAB. “However, I can say that full cooperation is being given to the California Highway Patrol and we are awaiting their final report and assessment.”

RECENT SPEED REDUCTIONS RECENTLY IMPLEMENTED THROUGHOUT COTO DE CAZA AS MANDATED BY JULY 2017 RESOLUTION OF THE OC BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

The Board of Supervisors reduced the speeds of several streets in Coto de Caza in July at the recommendation of the Orange County Traffic Committee. Speeds were reduced from 40 MPH to 35 MPH. The Board reduced the speeds on Tipu Run, from Devonwood Drive to Hawthorne Lane to 35 MPH. However, some areas of Vista Del Verde remained unchanged at 40 MPH. The accident occurred right at the intersection where speeds were reduced in the general area just months ago.

Residents say the intersection at Tipu Run, Vista Del Verde and Devonwood Drive could use traffic safety enhancements – such road signs alerting drivers to the roundabout and the directions in which to turn.

Residents say the yellow road markings are also confusing to drivers not from the area, as the Southbound Vista Del Verde yellow lines seem to indicate the road goes left onto Devonwood when it in fact turns right towards Tipu Run.

In response to overall community input in regards to development and potential toll roads, the Board of Supervisors created the Coto de Caza Planning Advisory Committee (CPAC) in December 2016. Residents have attended these meetings and commented on the record about traffic impacts and road safety.

Residents wishing to address the CPAC on Coto de Caza issues can visit the website to ascertain more information, and residents are highly encouraged to attend monthly public meetings:

http://www.ocgov.com/gov/pw/ds/planning/hearing/advisory_committees/coto_de_caza_.asp.

For past CPAC meetings and minutes, go to (http://www.ocpublicworks.com/ds/planning/hearing/advisory_committees/coto_de_caza_/coto_de_caza_meeting_minutes).

Monthly CPAC meetings are held on the 1stWednesday at 6 p.m. at the Bell Tower Regional Community Center, 22232 El Paseo, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688.

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FOR THE RECORD:

AN OUTLINE OF THE 11/3/17 NEAR TWO FATALITY CRASH AT TIPU RUN, DEVONWOOD DRIVE AND VISTA DEL VERDE

State of California, Department of California Highway Patrol: REPORT OF COLLISION

Type of Collision: Injury

Date: 11/03/17 22:37 Area: Capistrano

Location: Southbound Vista Del Verde at Devonwood Drive

Weather: Dry and Cool

Persons Involved/Name:

Driver, Party #1, Age:24, Male, Safety Equipment Used: No

City of Residence: Trabuco Canyon, Direction of Travel: South,

Vehicle YEAR & MAKE: 2013 VOLKSWAGEN BUG

INJURY: MAJOR, BROKEN NECK,

ARREST: YES

(NOTE: on the injury selection, its: minor, moderate, major, fatal.)

PASSENGER, Party #2, Age: 44, Female, Safety Equipment Used: Yes

City of Residence: Rancho Santa Margarita, Direction of Travel: South

Vehicle YEAR & MAKE: 2013 VOLKSWAGEN BUG

INJURY: MAJOR, FRACTURED CLAVICLE, PNEUMOTHORAX

ARREST: NO

SUMMARY: On November 3, 2017, at approximately 2237 hours, a Volkswagen Bug driven by a Party 1 of Trabuco Canyon, California, was traveling southbound Vista del Verde, just north of Devonwood Drive at approximately 60 miles per hour. At this location, the intersection of Vista del Verde, and Devonwood Drive in Coto de Caza is controlled by a traffic circle and separated by raised concrete medians. Party 1 allowed the Volkswagen to veer to the left, where it struck the raised concrete median area just north of the traffic circle. As a result of the impact, Party 1 lost control of vehicle 1. Vehicle 1 traveled out of control in a southerly direction through the traffic circle striking another raised concrete median and overturning onto its’ roof. Vehicle 1 came to rest on its passenger side within the dirt/shrubbery shoulder area just south. of the roadway. Multiple Good Samaritans happened upon the scene and observed Vehicle 1 on fire with both parties trapped. The Good Samaritans extricated both parties from the vehicle before it became fully engulfed. Orange County Fire Authority arrived on scene shortly after and extinguished the flames. The collision resulted in severe injuries to both of the vehicles occupants, who were transported to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo and treated for major injuries. Party 1 was arrested for felony DUI.

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