BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS Freak accident leaves...

BRIEFLY IN

THE NEWS

Freak accident leaves woman dead

A 44-year-old Newport Beach woman died in a freak accident on

Thursday morning after she was run over by her own car, police said.

Mariam Amadi had parked her car in the 2700 block of Hillside

Drive, but had not left her car “in parking position,” Newport Beach

Police Sgt. Steve Shulman said.

The car appeared to have backed up the hill and run over Amadi,

Shulman said. A passerby saw Amadi pinned under her car at about 7:45

a.m. The same witness had also seen Amadi drive the car earlier.

The passerby, with help from several neighbors, managed to lift

the vehicle and pull Amadi from under the car. Paramedics then

transported her to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, where she

underwent surgery but died, Shulman said.

He said preliminary investigation shows that the woman was run

over by the unattended vehicle and was caught under the left front

wheel, which caused the critical injuries.

The accident is under investigation.

Costa Mesa man sentenced in car theft

A 26-year-old Costa Mesa man, who changed his mind and pleaded

guilty to unlawfully taking an Anaheim woman’s car when she was

visiting her disabled daughter in the hospital, was sentenced

Thursday to four months in jail and three years of probation.

Pedro Meraz pleaded not guilty to the charge last week. He was

arrested by Huntington Beach police on Aug. 25 when he was driving

into a strip mall at the intersection of Goldenwest Street and

Garfield Avenue. Police found the ignition punched and a screwdriver

in the ignition, Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Schroeder said.

The 1986 Toyota Corolla was stolen Aug. 18 after the owner had

parked it at Children’s Hospital of Orange County and gone in to

visit her child.

Newport paramedic’s condition improves

Newport Beach Fire Paramedic Brian Slater, who was critically

injured while bodysurfing on Saturday, is slowly recovering in Hoag

Hospital’s intensive care unit, officials said Thursday.

His condition has been downgraded from critical to serious, fire

department officials said through the city’s Web site, which gives

updates about Slater.

Doctors are trying to decrease his need for the ventilator and

breathing tube in the hope that Slater will soon be able to breathe

by himself, they said.

Cable cause of outage, officials say

A power outage, which crippled several Mariner’s Mile businesses

Wednesday afternoon and affected about 1,700 customers, was caused by

a malfunctioning underground cable, said Ray Golden, a spokesman for

Southern California Edison.

The outage began at about 12:20 p.m. Several homes in Promontory

Point were also affected. Power was restored to all but 100 by 1

p.m., Golden said. The remaining got power back by about 9 p.m., he

said.

-- Deepa Bharath