Motorcycle club says 3 badly injured will survive

By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press,

Sunday, November 14, 2010 at 1:02 p.m.

SAN DIEGO — The president of a Southern California motorcycle club says three members who were seriously injured in a crash that killed five people are expected to survive.

Carl Smith of Saddletramps Motorcycle Club said Sunday that one San Diego man suffered a punctured lung and broken hip and ankle. His wife broke her pelvis and had a brain hemorrhage.

Another man broke his pelvis, ribs, back and jaw.

Smith says there were 21 riders in the group. He watched in his rearview mirror as a Dodge Avenger turned into oncoming traffic and struck the middle of the pack.

The driver had tried to avoid a gold Honda Civic that passed the motorcycles on the undivided two-lane highway.

Smith estimates the Honda was going about 95 mph.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SAN DIEGO (AP) - A man was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after he slammed his car head-on into a group of motorcycle riders celebrating their club's 10th anniversary, killing four motorcyclists and his companion, authorities said Sunday.

The driver, Carlos Ramirez Bobadilla, was among six people injured in Saturday's crash on a remote desert highway, said California Highway Patrol Officer DeeAnn Goudie. Ramirez, 36, was recovering from hand fractures at a San Diego hospital.

The arrest was made when officers smelled alcohol on his breath about five hours after the crash, Goudie said. Results of a blood test were pending.

It is unclear if the driver's alleged alcohol consumption contributed to the collision, Goudie said, but he was arrested on a misdemeanor and is not being held responsible for the deaths based on evidence collected so far. Authorities are looking for the driver of a gold Honda Civic who forced Ramirez the road when trying to pass the motorcyclists on the undivided two-lane highway east of San Diego.

Ramirez, of Mexicali, Mexico, swerved his white Dodge Avenger to the right shoulder to avoid the Honda and then overcompensated by swinging left into oncoming traffic, Goudie said. Ramirez's speedometer was found stuck at 60 mph, 5 mph below the speed limit.

"It would have been nice if he had just gone off to the right," she said. "He would have been stuck in the soft sand."

None of the motorcyclists got the license plate of the Honda driver - described as a man wearing a baseball cap. No one pursued him, choosing to stay behind to attend to their friends.

"I was the first person on scene that had a uniform on," Goudie said. "I was being dragged in every direction by frantic people saying, 'Help this person, help that person.'"

The CHP withheld the names of the five who died, pending notification of next of kin. They included a husband and wife who were on a motorcycle that was first to be struck.

A man who was driving a motorcycle behind the couple was struck next and died, Goudie said.

Ramirez turned and hit a third motorcycle, killing a woman who was riding on the back and injuring her husband, Wilson Trayer, 39, of Lakeside, Goudie said.

Trayer's daughter, Sierra, said her father has been on a life support and was in surgery. He broke his pelvis, ribs, back and jaw.

Trayer's motorcycle sliced 18 inches into the front passenger door of the Dodge that Ramirez was driving, killing Ramirez's companion, a 31-year-old Mexicali woman who owned the car, Goudie said.

One of the injured - John Philip Lombardo, 55, of Lakeside, whose leg was hit by an ejected motorcyclist - has been released from the hospital, Goudie said.

Goudie didn't know the condition or prognosis of the others. They include William Barnes of San Diego, who suffered a broken hip, and his wife, Melanie Barnes, who broke her pelvis.

The ride was held to mark the 10th anniversary of the Lakeside-based Saddletramps Motorcycle Club, Goudie said. They had planned to spend the night at the Quechan Casino Resort in Winterhaven, near the Arizona state line.

"They were just going on a nice, leisurely ride in the desert because the weather's gorgeous now," she said.

The group met Saturday morning at the Alpine home of its president, James Carl Smith, and went for breakfast at the Golden Acorn Casino off Interstate 8 in Boulevard, Goudie said.

The accident occurred about 1 p.m. Saturday on state Route 98 near the hamlet of Ocotillo, about 80 miles east of San Diego. The curvy road, which hugs the Mexican border, links Mexicali to Interstate 8 and is used by motorists from Southern Californians and Mexico's Baja California state.