SOLANA BEACH : 2nd Crash on I-5 Also Proves Fatal

An 11-year-old boy who survived a tractor-trailer crash in Solana Beach Sunday morning is reported in serious but stable condition at Children’s Hospital, a hospital spokesman said.

The truck driver, Richard Allen Schmelter, 46, of Corona, was pronounced dead at the crash scene, officials said. Schmelter and the boy were reportedly neighbors in Corona, said spokesman Mark Morelli.

Police said Schmelter’s truck veered off northbound Interstate 5, smashed through a guard rail and into a tree in the back yard of a home in the 700 block of Santa Florencia about 11:40 a.m.

Nathan Burkman of Corona was a passenger in the big rig and suffered a broken neck from the crash, Morelli said. Hospital officials initially thought Burkman’s injuries included spinal cord damage when he was reported in critical condition Sunday, Morelli said. But the boy is talking and now able to move his fingers, and his condition has improved to serious, he said.

Several hours later, a 41-year-old San Diego man driving in the heavy northbound traffic caused by the first crash apparently suffered a heart attack and crashed into three cars, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.

Michael Brown, a basketball coach at Torrey Pines High School, was pronounced dead at the crash scene, officials said. There were no other injuries, CHP spokesman Lyn Reynolds said.

Brown had been driving about 45 m.p.h. in the freeway shoulder near Via de la Valle at 6 p.m. Sunday, Reynolds said. Brown’s car swerved, and bounced back and forth, hitting a guard rail and three cars lined up in the heavy traffic.