4-Year-Old Girl Killed, 4 Hurt When Van and Truck Collide

LAKE FOREST — A van carrying a mother, baby sitter and three young children from Irvine was broadsided as it emerged from the Foothill Transportation Corridor toll road Saturday afternoon, killing a 4-year-old girl and sending the others to a hospital.

Sheriff’s investigators withheld identification of the dead and injured, saying families had not yet been notified.

A sheriff’s spokesman said the van was leaving the tollway at Portola Parkway when it entered the intersection and was struck by a pickup truck. The truck’s passengers--a man, woman and 12-year-old boy from Trabuco Canyon--were not injured, the spokesman said.

The intersection is controlled by a traffic signal, and investigators were trying to determine whether one of the drivers ran a red light.

Investigators described the passengers of the van as a 35-year-old woman, a 14-year-old girl acting as baby sitter, and the woman’s 1-, 4- and 6-year-old children.

All were taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, where the 4-year-old was pronounced dead at 5:45 p.m. The others were listed as suffering moderate injuries.