Teen Driver Charged With 5 Counts Of Manslaughter In Connection With Fatal Crash On 5 Freeway In Irvine
IRVINE (CBSLA.com) — Authorities in Orange County on Saturday announced they had charged a Laguna Niguel teenager with five felony counts of gross vehicular manslaughter in connection with a car crash that killed five teenagers last year.
The driver, Bradley Morales, 17, was also charged with driving a motor vehicle without a driver's license and failure to show proof of financial responsibility.
Five passengers who were riding with Morales died in a crash on the southbound 5 Freeway in Irvine as the group was returning from Knott's Scary Farm on Oct. 4 of last year after the car veered off the road, into a guard rail and then into an embankment before erupting in flames. Morales suffered a head injury and was the sole survivor.
The California Highway Patrol said on Saturday that Morales was taken into custody on October 3rd by CHP officers and booked into the Orange County Juvenile Detention Center.
The CHP had been investigating the incident throughout the past year.