Claim: Photographs show the results of a fatal automobile accident involving a Porsche 911 Carrera in Orange County, California.
Example:[Collected via e-mail, 2006]
Forward this to anyone you care about, even if they are not known for Drinking and Driving.
This is from a fatal crash on the 241 toll road at alton pkwy on the afternoon of halloween. The driver was an 18 year who took her father's brand new Porsche out for a spin without permission after getting drunk. Two 9-1-1 calls came in about three mins. before she crashed. 1 was from her dad saying she just left the house w/ his car without permission - the other call was from a neighbor saying she peeled out at about 60+ around the corner in the neighborhood. Within five miles from her house and a three minute time frame she managed to get the car on the 241 at well over 100 MPH where she ran into an unsuspecting driver in a Honda then into one of the toll booths.
Origins: The automobile accident depicted in the
photographs above took place on 31 October 2006 around the Alton Parkway exit of California State Route 241 in the South Orange County city of Lake Forest (formerly known as El Toro). The collision claimed the life of 18-year-old Ladera Ranch resident Nicole ("Nikki") Catsouras, who was killed when she clipped a gray Honda Civic she was attempting to pass while traveling at more than 100 mph in her Porsche 911 Carrera. The Porsche careened across the center divider and the lanes on the opposite side of the highway, then slammed into a toll booth. Ms. Catsouras died at the scene; the 20-year-old man who was driving the Honda Civic was taken to a hospital with "minor to moderate injuries."
The statement in the accompanying text that Nicole Catsouras "took her father's brand new Porsche out for a spin without permission after getting drunk" is unsupported by the publicly revealed facts. According to the Orange County Register, Nicole's father had taken away the keys to car after the two of them had gotten into an argument over "typical teenager stuff" the night before she died. Although Nikki did take the keys to her father's $150,000 Porsche
(an automobile she had never driven before) without his knowledge or consent and drove off in the car the following afternoon, police said alcohol did not play a factor in the accident.
Last updated: 9 January 2007
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/alton.asp
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