An 88-year-old passenger was killed after the president of a California mortgage institution is accused of driving her Land Rover past a red light while intoxicated and colliding with another car.
According to a news release issued by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department on Saturday, Serene Francie Rosenberg, 48, allegedly jumped a red light and struck a Ford Transit van head-on on Friday at approximately 6:15 p.m. in Dana Point, which is about 60 miles outside of downtown Los Angeles.
Melvin Joseph Weibel, an 88-year-old Dana Point resident, was the van’s passenger when the impact was so violent that he died instantaneously.
The van’s driver was rushed to a local hospital with “serious but non-life-threatening injuries,” police said.
“Based on preliminary investigation, the Land Rover was traveling westbound on Stonehill Drive and turned left against a red arrow signal in front of the Ford Transit van traveling eastbound on Stonehill Drive,” the sheriff’s department revealed.
