Orange Coast College employee killed in Fountain Valley crash, DUI suspected

An Orange Coast College employee died and another person was seriously hurt after a motorist suspected of driving while intoxicated veered into oncoming traffic and slammed into the car they were riding in on late Saturday in Fountain Valley.

The collision on Bushard Street near Swift Avenue happened at about 11:50 p.m., Fountain Valley police wrote in a news release. A silver 2005 Infiniti FX35 had been heading north when it traveled into southbound lanes and crashed head-on with a 2015 Nissan Sentra.

The driver of the Sentra was taken to a hospital with serious injuries. The person in its passenger seat died at the scene, police said.

The Coast Report identifed the person who died as 34-year-old Emylie Tran, an accounting technician for the campus. She helped run programs that benefited low-income students and those who have gone through foster care and the juvenile justice system.

“She would also make sure that all students have supplies and benefits such as gas cards, vendor cards, food cards and textbooks,” Dean of Student Support and Interim Director of EOPS/CARE/CalWORKs/Guardian Scholars Steve Tamanaha told the student-run newspaper. “She was just a great, welcoming person. She was always that type of person who greeted me with a smile.”

Updates on the condition of the person she was traveling with were not publicly available as of Tuesday.

The driver of the Infinity that slammed into them, described as a 24-year-old Hawaiian Gardens man, was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. Information on what, if any, criminal allegations he may face were not immediately released.