1 Killed, 2 Hurt in Crash After Halloween Party

BREA — A 25-year-old Brea woman was killed and two others injured--one critically--when their car swerved out of control on Brea Boulevard and hit a tree while the occupants were returning from a Halloween party early Sunday, authorities said.

The woman, who was riding in the rear passenger seat, was pronounced dead at the scene, said Kurt Murine, an Orange County senior deputy coroner.

She was not identified pending notification of her mother, who was out of state, Murine said.

The driver, Victor Rocha, 27, of Downey, and the other passenger, Robert Allsop, 30, of Long Beach, were both taken to UCI Medical Center, where Rocha was in critical condition and Allsop in stable condition late Sunday.

The accident was discovered by a passerby at 5:45 a.m., said a spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol.

The three passengers were heading south in a 1985 Saab on the winding, two-lane stretch of highway just south of Tonner Canyon Road when Rocha apparently lost control of the car and hit the tree before sliding down a slight embankment about 20 feet off the roadway, Murine said.

“There was a length of skid marks at a curve,” Murine said. “It looks like the driver lost control and the driver’s side of the vehicle struck a pepper tree and killed the girl.”

Neither the woman nor the driver was wearing a seat belt, a CHP spokesman said.

The accident remains under investigation.