Local News in Brief : Santa Ana : Truck Driver in Crash Free of Alcohol, Drugs

Toxicology tests show the driver of a truck that rear-ended a car on the Santa Ana Freeway last month, killing three people, was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the Orange County district attorney’s office said Friday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Del Wright said he is waiting for additional information from police before deciding whether to charge Jackie Wayne Dillard, 55, of Fresno. Three people were killed and 10 others were injured in the April 23 accident when Dillard’s truck ran into cars that had slowed down on the freeway.

Wright said he particularly wanted to find a witness who had called police just moments before the crash to report a truck that was moving erratically on the Santa Ana Freeway. The description and license number the caller gave match Dillard’s truck, police say.

“I can’t say at this level what weight his testimony would have, but we are interested in communicating with him about his observations of the manner in which the truck was being driven,” Wright said.

Dillard’s attorney, Randolph Driggs of Santa Ana, said any witness would have to be “real specific” about what he saw before his testimony could help the prosecution. “There’s a lot of different facts that you’d have to have before you could carry that as evidence against that individual,” he said.

Driggs said the toxicology results were “what I expected all along in viewing Mr. Dillard, and talking to him and all of the information I had.”

He said that Dillard and his wife, Mamie, were both extremely religious and were “grieving over the loss of lives.”

Dillard said he “felt sorry for the people who were injured.”