Local woman dies after car crash...

Local woman dies after car crash

A 41-year-old Huntington Beach woman died Friday afternoon after

driving her vehicle into a cinder-block wall at the dead-end

intersection of Yorktown Avenue and Ward Street.

The accident occurred at 4:09 p.m.

Mary Stinson was heading southbound on Ward, when she blew through

a stop sign, failing to make a right-hand turn on Yorktown.

After plowing through a guard-rail, Stinson’s 1996 Ford Escort station wagon smashed through the wall. She died at the scene of a

severe head injury, Sgt. Gary Meza said.

Stinson’s car hit the wall so hard that cinder blocks were

scattered as far as 100 feet behind the wall on Aragon Circle, a

dead-end cul-de-sac, said city workers who were cleaning up the

debris.

On Monday, small crosses and flowers marked the spot where Stinson

died.

Witnesses said Stinson was driving as fast as 70 miles per hour.

The posted speed limit on both streets in 45 miles per hour. Stinson

was wearing a seat belt and both air bags had deployed.

Police don’t know why Stinson was driving so fast, Meza said.

New Year’s Eve arrests called slow

Huntington Beach Police arrested 26 people on New Year’s Eve. That

was described as a slow holiday locally for raucous partying.

The city’s police department made the arrests between 6 p.m. and 6

a.m., Sgt. Gary Meza said.

“It was slower than most New Year’s that we can remember,” Meza

said. “It was like a busy summer night.”

Of the 26 arrests, 12 were for public drunkenness, five for

driving under the influence, three for possession of a controlled

substance and two for disturbing the peace.

Four others were arrested for various crimes.

Over the 12-hour period beginning at 6 p.m. last New Year’s Eve,

police arrested 15 persons, Meza said.