Callahan & Blaine

Six people were injured, two critically, when an SUV slammed into a pole just before midnight on April 5.

The driver, Alex Nieves of Santa Ana, 18, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence as a tank of nitrous oxide was found in the white Chevrolet SUV, and, “May have been a contributing factor in the collision,” police stated in a news release.

Officers responded to the car crash on Harbor Boulevard near Edinger Avenue at 11:59 p.m. Friday. The ages of the occupants in the SUV ranged from 18 to the mid-20s, police said. All six people in the SUV were taken to the hospital. Their injuries were not life threatening, according to the release.

“It sounds like most of them were under the influence of a variety of substances,” police stated.

Nitrous oxide is legally used by dentists for anesthesia, to pressurize whipped cream canisters and to speed up drag racing cars. But it’s also known as a top party drug and its illegal use has been implicated in traffic accidents, rapes and teenage deaths.

Accidents like these often leave families with the right to pursue a claim. As one of the leading catastrophic personal injury law firms in California, Callahan & Blaine has obtained numerous record-breaking verdicts and settlements in cases like this, helping bring some small justice to the aggrieved family. If you or someone you know has suffered a catastrophic injury or died as the result of an accident, contact the best personal injury attorneys in Orange County for expert legal counsel.