rest in peace, julie allen (fountain valley/cdm/stanford)...

Such sad news.

I read about the crash last night. A good friend of mine lives close by. I saw the name and didn't make the connection to CDM.

What is so unusual, is was a 10 car crash that was not on a freeway. A car going fast must have crossed the road into heavy traffic. Unfortunately, Julie and two others died.

Oh shit! Julie's car sped into oncoming traffic.

A preliminary investigation by the Police Department’s traffic investigators indicates Allen’s vehicle was driving at an excessive rate of speed eastbound on West Coast Highway when it crossed into the opposing lanes of traffic striking a Toyota Prius and a white Ford Taurus. Allen’s vehicle continued in the opposing lanes of traffic and struck a Nissan Titan pickup before hitting the passenger door of the white Toyota Tacoma pick up occupied by Christopher De La Cruz and Linda Burnett who was turning from southbound Riverside Avenue onto eastbound West Coast Highway. This collision propelled Allen’s vehicle into the air where it landed in the southbound turn lane for a private restaurant from westbound West Coast Highway. Upon landing, Allen’s vehicle struck several other vehicles including a motorcycle. The investigation into the circumstances surrounding the collision is ongoing.

http://www.coronadelmartoday.com/

Thanks Cush for bringing this thread back to where it belongs. This whole event is absolutely heartbreaking. My family has the most wonderful memories of Julie on the tracks and courses of SoCal. Many a hard fought battle at Woodbridge, Mt. Sac, Woodward & Footlocker and then eventually onto NCAAs. What a competitor and what a lovely young lady!! She will be truly missed! Our thoughts and prayers to her family and running group.

i got to watch her run while coaching at the county meet where she won for fountain valley (i think) in 2000 and for cdm in 2001, as well as other local meets, and i think someone else described as a little sparkplug.

one of my last conversations with her--poignant to describe now--was about just appreciating running for running's sake. i had asked her about high stakes high school and collegiate running, and how it's always nice to see someone of her caliber come back to running after some time off, and she replied something like "it's just running--sometimes we make it out to be something bigger than it is, instead of enjoying it for what it is." how true. so sad to see that enthusiasm lost at 27...

Wow.... so sad to read... If I remember correctly, she was a soccer player who went full time to running after performing so well?

I remember her very well, she graduated a year later than I did.

Terrible to read.

I used to run against her in high school. This is tragic news. I pray for comfort for her friends and family.

Do forget the other people involved. Please pray for all three who died, and also forgets motorcycle rider who is in critical condition.

Don't jump to conclusions. I wrote that having only read the subject line. I read the article and responses after posting. Of course I am thinking about the victims and their families. It was a very, very horrible crash.

That wasn't my intent. All involved, and friends and families deserve our thoughts. Please stay positive. Thank you in advance.

Sorry about that. I meant do not forget. I see how the missing not is confusing. My appologies for the typo.

one has to wonder... wrote:

..what the hell happened? Did she suffer a seizure? heart attack? any medical reason that would cause her to be going close to 100 mph and jump to the opposite lanes? Drinking, drugs? Very sad for all involved.

Same thing happened to a friend of mine 30 years ago. Only in his case it was late at night and he didn't hurt anyone else. He careened of of a car stopped at a stop sign and hit a telephone pole.

To this day no one knows for sure what happened. We suspect he just passed out or fell asleep.

Hopefully Julie's family and all involved get some answers and closure.

I ran with her several time about a month ago. We met up at various places in orange county. I actually liked her. It's sad because we have the same car and model and that's how we sparked a conversation. She described her car as "champang" color. We discussed her life and talked about all kinds of stuff. Last call I got from her was before Christmas because she hadn't called me back in awhile. She was definatly not a fast driver. I have a 2004 ford Taurus and have had all kinds of issues with it. I bet this was a issue related to the car.

Investigators are doing their job. An accelerator issue is mentioned in the story link below. Previously she was taking medications for some reason, but seemed to have thing control. Accelerator seems a good bet at the moment.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-newport-crash-20110118,0,6914631.story

Like I said I've had problems related to my cruise control on my ford Taurus. I just had the auto place remove mine

The OP is allowing certain types of speculative posts to remain and others speculative posts to remain. Posting links to real newspaper article should be okay. Otherwise, any comments about cars should be removed until the police report is out.

This thread is a difficult one for us to moderate as it involves the tragic passing of a person in her prime combined with a way of passing that is so shocking that it naturally is going to lead to speculation. That speculation is going to be hard to read for those in grieving and some of them have asked for the thread to come down.

We try to leave up threads as much as we can.

As a result, I will say the following.

It's natural to wonder why her car was going over 100 mph as that's just not normal. The investigators are looking into that as slew of factors could be the culprit (including driver impairment from both natural and unnatural causes, mechanical failure, etc).

Please keep wild, unsubstantiated speculation off of this thread out of respect for the friends of the deceased. Please wait for more facts are learned to discuss those types of things or the entire thread will be deleted.

Many thanks for your understanding,

Robert

Rojo,

I think it is best to remove the thread for the time being. Wait until after the police report is released, and then decide whether it is appropriate to have a thread about this or not.

Thank you for your comment. The mods have a tough job.

Any police report would have to be scrutinized by press, manufacturer, and academia to determine the validity of the findings.