Man dies in crash

Sheriff’s Station sergeant: vehicle was traveling at high rate of speed

A high-speed Saugus crash of one car into an SUV, which flipped the car and sent it “sliding” into a utility pole Wednesday night and resulted in the death of the driver, is under investigation.

Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies are probing the fatal crash that took place around 9:10 p.m. Wednesday in Saugus, near the intersection of Bouquet Canyon Road and Wellston Drive.

Andrew Straughan, 24, of Santa Clarita, was pronounced dead

at the scene of the crash at 9:25 p.m., according to Investigator Kristy L. McCracken of the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner.

“The vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed,” Sgt. Scott Shoemaker, who heads the SCV Sheriff’s Station Traffic Unit, said Thursday morning.

“It attempted to make a lane change but, instead, struck a vehicle in front of it,” he said. “The driver lost control and ended up northbound on the sidewalk where it collided with a (Southern California) Edison pole, which crushed the passenger compartment of the vehicle. Straughan was the lone occupant of the sedan. The car flipped onto its side and slid on its passenger door into the pole, Shoemaker said, noting the pole also came in contact with the car’s roof.

Three occupants of the other vehicle, an SUV, suffered varying degrees of injury. Two of them were taken to the hospital at 9:52 p.m.

“This call came in as possible people trapped with serious injuries,” Inspector David Michel of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said Thursday.

When paramedics arrived at the crash at 9:16 p.m., the one person they found trapped inside a car was the lone occupant of the sedan, he said, noting they pronounced the motorist trapped in his car dead at the scene.

“Two of the three people were taken to the hospital, the third refused transport,” Michel said.

Traffic investigators with the SCV Sheriff’s Station, as a matter of protocol, are awaiting the results of test samples taken from the crash and submitted for testing for alcohol and drugs.

Michele Lutes/The Signal A sheriff’s deputy paces the perimeter of a fatal crash scene during an investigation Wednesday night near Bouquet Canyon Road and Wellston Drive in Saugus. Three people were also injured in the incident.