Five walk away from car wreck with minor injuries

A car collision between a Mercedes sedan and minivan sent five people to the hospital, police said.

About 4:43 p.m. Thursday a Mercedes carrying four people and a minivan with a husband and wife collided at East Coast Highway and Reef Point Drive, officials said.

“It looked to be pretty violent; we found that the cars were destroyed, both off the roadway,” said Newport Beach fire Capt. Rob Beuch. “When they hit they were going really fast. The cars pretty much disintegrated.”

Despite the force of the collision, only five of the people were injured, all of them considered minor, officials said. They were taken to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.

Ambulances from as far away as Dana Point arrived to help transport the injured, Beuch said.

He credited the cars for keeping everyone relatively safe.

“I think people are really walking away from accidents that in past years, would’ve been pretty darn serious if not fatal,” he said.

— Joseph Serna