Victims of I-5 Crash Went to Mission Viejo Schools

Originally posted at 3:04 p.m. Oct. 4, 2014. Edited with new details.

Three boys and two girls -- all apparently aged about 14 or 15 -- were killed when a BMW driven by a 16-year-old boy who may have been unlicensed flew off the Santa Ana (5) Freeway and caught fire in Irvine early today.

“They were burned beyond recognition,” Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi said of the victims.

The 16-year-old driver suffered major injuries in the crash, which happened at 2:12 a.m. on the southbound side of the freeway south of the Route 133 toll road, according to the California Highway Patrol.

He was rushed to Mission Hospital in serious condition, and he reportedly told rescuers the group had been returning from a late-night trip to Knott’s Berry Farm.

The CHP has not been able to confirm that the driver was licensed, according to reports from the scene.

“It does not appear he has a driver’s license,” CHP Officer Florentino Olivera told the Orange County Register.

Olivera said no record of the boy having a license was found after running the name and date of birth supplied by his parents.

California law prohibits drivers younger than 18 from driving between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. or carrying passengers younger than 20 for the first 12 months they are licensed, unless the driver is accompanied by a parent or guardian or other person specified by law.

The Los Angeles Times reported the names of the victims were circulated at Mission Viejo’s Oso Viejo soccer park, where today’s soccer practice for a team of 14- and 15-year-olds started without the three boys.

“These are good boys,” coach Billy McNicol told The Times. “We are devastated. Just devastated.”

The newspaper said teammates were told the victims are Alejandro (Alex) Sotelo, 14, and Matthew Melo, 14, both ninth graders at Capistrano Valley High School, and Brandon Moreno, an eighth grader at Carl Hankey Middle School. Both schools are in Mission Viejo, about 8 miles from the crash site.

Melo’s dad was also a soccer coach for AYSO in San Juan Capistrano. He contacted team mom Kimberly Kristoffersen Harden of San Juan Capistrano to give the news.

“It’s with a very heavy heart that I let you know two ... boys from my team have died,” Harden wrote on Facebook. “I was the team mom and I love these boys like crazy. These boys weren’t just a part of a team, we were a family. I have a hole in my heart that words cannot describe.”

Sotelo and Melo are listed on the Capo Valley High School boys’ soccer team roster. They also played together in AYSO and for the Mission Viejo Soccer Club, Harden said.

“ These two boys had an incredible force to be met with on the field. Off the field, they were genuinely good kids,” she said, adding Soleto is from San Juan Capistrano, Melo from Mission Viejo.

Friends identified a fellow soccer player, an 11th grader, as the driver.

The names of two girls killed in the wreck were not known, The Times reported.

None of the names were officially released as the coroner worked to identify the burned bodies and notify relatives. A note on the coroner’s website says officials are using dental records to confirm the identities.

According to the CHP, the BMW was southbound on the freeway when it drifted off the roadway, its front end striking a metal guardrail.

“Due to the speed, the vehicle continued in a southerly direction up an overcrossing embankment and came to rest on the top of a concrete retaining wall,” according to a CHP news release. The car and its five passengers then became engulfed in fire, according to the CHP, which reported the driver was found outside the vehicle.

Video from the scene showed the white 1995 BMW burned atop the retaining wall. A crane was used to lift it from its blackened perch.

Two of the deceased girls and one of the boys were not wearing safety restraints. It was unclear if the driver used his seat belt.

--City News Service

Patch Senior Editor Penny Arévalo contributed to this report.

PHOTO L-R: Alex Sotelo and Mathew Melo. Courtesy Kimberly Kristoffersen Harden.

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