Fiery crash kills teen driver, injures passenger

A high-speed single-car crash near Estancia High School in Costa Mesa killed a 16-year-old driver and injured his teenage passenger just after midnight Wednesday, according to police.

The Orange County coroner’s office identified the driver as Jacob Pacheco of Costa Mesa, and school officials said the passenger is a 17-year-old Estancia student.

Costa Mesa police officers responded to the crash, which caused the vehicle to catch fire, about 12:30 a.m. in the 2300 block of Placentia Avenue.

Authorities said a 1999 silver BMW 540i was speeding north past Joann Street when it swerved out of control.

The car spun up on the eastbound sidewalk on Placentia Avenue across from Estancia and hit a large tree. Officials said the car caught fire as police and fire authorities arrived.

Pacheco died instantly from blunt force trauma, police said.

Paramedics took the passenger to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana with what appeared to be a broken jaw, authorities said.

Police are investigating the cause of the crash.

Estancia Principal Kirk Bauermeister said he was at the school when he heard about the crash from a TV news reporter.

He and a group of students began looking into what happened and determined the passenger is a student at the school, he said.

Pacheco was a student at Estancia at one point too, Bauermeister said, but he estimated that was about two years ago.

Officials could not immediately confirm if Pacheco had still been attending classes in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

School board Trustee Martha Fluor said she fears hearing about students who are injured in car crashes, especially at this time of year.

“It always happens around the holidays,” Bauermeister said.

The school district plans to provide counselors for students and teachers when classes resume after the Thanksgiving holiday.

“We’re deploying a whole group of crisis people over to Estancia on Monday,” Flour said.

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact Costa Mesa police traffic Investigator Darren Wood at (714) 754-5264.