Authorities said that a woman is still in critical condition following an accident she had on Thursday afternoon when her car flipped over and she was trapped underneath it.
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22-year-old Fidel Barrera, of Midway City was driving the vehicle that overturned and was later arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs on Monday evening.
Lt. Mitch O’Brien, an officer of the Huntington Beach Police Department, said that Barrera is currently out of custody as he waits for his toxicology report.
Huntington Beach police officers said that according to witness reports, the crash happened at about 4:25 p.m. at the intersection of Warner Avenue and Algonquin Street.
The driver of the 1999 Toyota 4-Runner, which is an SUV, was traveling at a high rate of speed in the eastbound lanes of Warner Avenue when unexpectedly lost control of his vehicle and flipped it more than once.
When Huntington Beach firefighters had arrived at the accident, they found that the Toyota 4-Runner had sustained major damage and the woman was trapped. Firefighters had to use the “Jaws of Life,” a machine that is used primarily to remove trapped motorists from their vehicles in the case of an accident, in order to extract the passengers. According to the reports from the Huntington Beach Police Department, there appeared to be four passengers in the vehicle, including the woman who was trapped.
As previously mentioned, Barrera was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence and driving with a suspended driver’s license.
According to police reports, they did not mention whether any of the other passengers were injured in the crash. It is unclear whether Barrera was speeding at the time of the accident, although that remains under investigation.
The crash is currently being investigated and police are asking for the help of any witnesses by calling their local police stations.
According to statistics from the State of California, there were over four-thousand car accidents within the state in 2006. Of the more than 40,000 car accidents in the United States that same year, California ranked number 1 with the most fatal car accidents.
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