Briefly in the news

An accident involving about four vehicles on the Costa Mesa Freeway on

Thursday evening sent one sedan careening into a guardrail, off the

freeway and onto Bristol Street in Costa Mesa, officials said.

No one was seriously injured in the 6:37 p.m. accident, said Officer

Katrina Lundgren of the California Highway Patrol.

Three teens in the flipped sedan were doing surprisingly well, said

Newport Beach resident Gary Brown, who witnessed part of the accident

while his vehicle was stopped at a red light on Bristol at Newport

Boulevard.

“The three teens jumped out immediately. By the time, I got there,

they were all out. I was so surprised they got out and were walking

around,” said Brown, who was on his way home after getting his hair cut.

“They could have been killed. I think they realized that too.”

Brown said that just after striking the guardrail, the car flipped

over, crashed hood first onto Bristol and then continued into a

somersault, eventually landing right side up again.

Both the front and back ends of the car bent in and upward during the

somersault, making the vehicle resemble a crescent moon, much like the

one hanging above it in the sky.

The cars had been traveling southbound on the freeway at the time of

the accident, Lundgren said.

The accident backed up traffic on the southbound side of the Costa

Mesa Freeway. Meanwhile, Costa Mesa police blocked off traffic heading

south on Bristol at Newport, onto which they rerouted those vehicles.

Additional details of the incident were unavailable at press time, but

law enforcement officials said the investigation will continue.