Drunk driver kills 1 in El Monte

A 42-year-old Ontario woman died and her female passenger was hurt after an alleged drunken driver rear-ended their car on the eastbound San Bernardino (10) Freeway in El Monte, a California Highway Patrol officer said.

The fatal crash occurred about 2:45 a.m. Sunday, just east of Santa Anita Avenue, said CHP Officer Armando Montoya.

Thomas Vaneuken, 43, of Anaheim was driving a 2009 Acura MDX eastbound on the 10 "at a speed witnesses indicated to be over 120 mph," at the time of the crash, Montoya said.

"(The victim) was driving her 1995 Mitsubishi directly ahead of (Vaneuken) at freeway speeds,'' Montoya said.

"Traffic ahead..began to slow and she began to reduce her vehicle's speed. Due to (Vaneuken's) level of intoxication and his unsafe speed, his vehicle rear-ended the Mitsubishi."

The deceased woman, whose name was withheld pending notification of her next of kin, sustained major injuries and was taken to Kaiser Hospital in Baldwin Hills where she was pronounced dead just after 3 a.m.

Her passenger, an unidentified 32-year-old Pomona woman, was treated for moderate injuries.

Vaneuken kept driving after the crash and got into the car pool lane where he hit the center divider and overturned his vehicle, Montoya said. He was taken to Kaiser Hospital in Baldwin Hills and treated for minor injuries.

After his treatment, Vaneuken was arrested and booked for gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving while intoxicated causing injury or death and blood alcohol .08 or more causing injury or death.

There was no word yet on when Vaneuken is scheduled to appear in court.