A convicted drunken driver was arrested Wednesday following an alleged alcohol-fueled hit-and-run collision that left a woman fighting for her life, Santa Ana police reported.
An officer on patrol just after midnight saw the woman lying in the road on Standard Avenue, just north of Edinger Avenue, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna.
“We’re trying to get her identified,” Bertagna said of the victim, who was taken to an area hospital in “extremely critical condition.”
A couple of blocks away from where the woman was found, police came across an unoccupied car that had major front-end damage, Bertagna said. He said officers spotted Albert Solano Diaz walking away from the car and detained him. Police suspect the 38-year-old Santa Ana resident was under the influence of alcohol, according to Bertagna, who said surveillance video shows Diaz getting out of the car.
Diaz pleaded guilty on Nov. 4, 2009, to misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit of .08 and driving without a valid driver’s license. He was placed on three years of informal probation and ordered to pay $440 in fines and to participate in a first-offender alcohol program for three months, according to court records.
Since then, he has had his probation revoked and reactivated due to failure to pay the fines, court records show.