Pauline Samantha Portes, 19, was fatally wounded during a
freeway collision with a motorist traveling the wrong way on the Costa Mesa
Freeway on Nov. 30.
Portes, a UC Riverside junior, was headed back to campus
from a Newport Beach outing in a blue Toyota pickup truck driven by her
boyfriend Steven Nguyen, 19, who suffered moderate injuries.
According to California Highway Patrol Sgt. Lydia Martinez,
CHP received news of a wrong-way driver on the freeway at 1:21 a.m. Two minutes later, the collision was reported
when a gray Nissan Altima driven by the suspect collided head-on with the
pickup.
The 19-year-old woman driving the Altima was seriously
injured and taken to a hospital. She was
arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, according to
CHP Officer Denise Quesada. The suspect’s name was not immediately released.
