At 2:05 a.m. Sunday Oct. 21, Kyle Travis Krengel-Owen, 29, of Idyllwild, was driving a white 2011 Mercedes Benz E63 AMG sedan northbound on South Circle Drive approaching Village Center Drive in Idyllwild at a high rate of speed.
According to the report from responding California Highway Patrol Officer Graham Aanestad, because of the vehicle’s high rate of speed and suspected intoxication of the driver, the vehicle failed to negotiate the left curve in the roadway and drifted off the roadway and onto the right shoulder of the street.
The right front of the Mercedes collided with a telecom pole, sheering it at its base. The force of the impact caused the vehicle to rotate on its axis in a clockwise manner. It continued in a northeasterly direction toward a stand of trees. The driver’s side of the vehicle collided with the trees. The force of the impact caused the vehicle to overturn onto the driver’s side and spin across the roadway, eventually coming to rest on its wheels on the street’s left shoulder.
The front-right passenger, Tarek Essa Joulani, 29, of San Jacinto, suffered facial lacerations and was transported by Idyllwild Fire to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs.
Krengel-Owen was arrested at the scene, transported to a hospital because of an acromioclavicular joint separation (collar bone separates from shoulder blade) and various cuts, and then booked on suspicion of felony driving under the influence because of injury to another, into the Larry B. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.
At 4:35 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, Edward Anderson, 58, of San Jacinto, was driving a tan 2006 Toyota Corolla eastbound on Highway 74 just east of mile marker 54 when he allowed the vehicle to drift off the road in a curve, hit the embankment and crash into the mountain.
Anderson was not injured and his vehicle was towed by Idyllwild Garage.
At 4:14 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, Alejandro Paez, 20, of Hemet, was driving a black 1988 Mercedes sedan eastbound on Highway 74, ½ mile east of Bee Canyon Road, when he made an unsafe turning movement and hit a rock. Paez was arrested at the scene on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol. Complaining of injury to his shoulder, Paez was first taken to San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital in Banning and was subsequently remanded to custody.
