Speeding driver misjudges things while running from the cops, plunges BMW into historic Orange Co fountain
This Orange County fountain, despite its history and community reverence, can’t catch a break. Its most recent issue? A possibly drunk driver crashed his BMW into it while attempting to get away from the police. But this isn’t even the first time the Plaza Park fountain has been on the receiving end of some vehicular carnage.
A police pursuit ended with a BMW driver slamming his car into a historic fountain
There is a circle in Orange County’s Plaza Park, and within that circle, there is a historic fountain. Unfortunately for the much-loved water feature, a wayward BMW driver turned it into a target.
Witnesses say the speeding BMW failed to get around the circle, instead slamming his car through bushes, benches, barriers, and eventually, the fountain itself.
The driver survived the wreck, and police quickly arrested him. But here’s the kicker: police suspected that the driver was drunk at the time, and this wasn’t his first DUI conviction. Even worse, the driver was on probation for a DUI at the time.
This isn’t the first time– or even the second
According to KTLA, this isn’t the first time that a driver failed to get around the circle. In November of 2023, an 18-year-old driver neglected to respect the weather on a rainy evening, causing a direct hit on the fountain.
Police arrested that driver, but that wasn’t even the first trauma the circle experienced at the hands of poor driving. In March of the same year, police chased a suspected carjacker into the vicinity.
But rather than making it around the circle and its treasured fountain, the suspect crashed into it, prompting him to flip his car over repeatedly.
So what gives? For starters, the fountain is the unfortunate, and relatively frequent, recipient of speed-related crashes. The NHTSA says speed is a factor in around 30% of all fatal traffic accidents.
However, most of these instances involved a police chase. And that’s an entirely different topic. Over 34 years, police chases resulted in over 11,500 deaths on American roads. Of those deaths, more than 5,000 were innocent bystanders, per USA Today. It’s one of the reasons many departments operate with a “no-chase” policy.
