Mission Hospital

A Sig-Alert was called around 3 p.m. Monday on Coast Highway in South Laguna after a suspected drunken driver allegedly hit three parked cars near West Street, Laguna Beach Police Sgt. Jason Kravetz said. At 4:30 p.m. traffic was reported backed up all the way to Diamond Street. The driver, who was injured, allegedly fled the scene but was taken into custody and transported to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, Kravetz said. “We received many calls of a white Porsche with Florida license plates which hit three parked cars in South Laguna.

A 27-year-old Laguna Beach man escaped with minor injuries after his Porsche Boxster struck three vehicles parked in the West Street vicinity of Coast Highway about 3 p.m. Monday, police said. The collision ended with a pickup truck on top of the Porsche and two other vehicles. The driver, Christopher Robert Lienhard, allegedly fled to the beach, where he was picked up shortly afterward by officers and later arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and a hit-and-run, Laguna Beach police Sgt. Jason Kravetz said.

A driver who was shot and critically injured Tuesday by police officers on South Coast Highway has died, Laguna Beach police said on Wednesday. The Orange County Sheriff's Department has identified him as Colby Joshua Koenig, 25, of Foothill Ranch. Koenig died at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo at 5:20 p.m. on Tuesday, said Jim Amormino, a Sheriff's spokesman. No other details were immediately available. Officers shot Koenig, who was suspected of causing a traffic collision at South Coast Highway at St. Anns Drive.

Young girl dies in auto accident An Aliso Viejo girl died early Friday after suffering massive head injuries in a crash in Laguna Beach. Cheyenne McKean, 5, died at 2:35 a.m. Friday, according to the Orange County Coroner's Division. The crash happened at about 11:29 a.m. on July 8 near the intersection of El Toro Road and the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road. A Honda Civic exiting the toll road off-ramp hit the Ford Explorer driven by Cheyenne's mother as she was driving west on El Toro Road, Sgt. Guy Miller said.

Mike Swanson Less than an hour before their 10 a.m. Roadside English lesson at the Laguna Day Worker Center Monday, laborers without medical coverage lined up outside a van in the parking lot and waited for free screenings. Through the efforts of eight community agencies, six of which are based in Laguna Beach, a medical van the size of a motor-home has been providing free blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes screenings at the center for the last two months.

Two memorial services will be held this weekend for Charles Reginald “Cowboy” Conway, who died Saturday after being hit by a minivan on Laguna Canyon Road. The Rev. Bob Moore of the Neighborhood Congregations Church will conduct a service at 9 a.m. Saturday in Heisler Park for the homeless population, of which Conwell was one of the most recognizable. A second service will be conducted by the Rev. B.J. Beu at 1 p.m. Sunday at the church at St. Ann’s Drive and Glenneyre Street.

The community should be very concerned about the future of South Coast Medical Center, the city’s hospital for some 50 years. The hospital closed its maternity ward in April in an effort to save money, after determining the ward was losing $1 million a year. Instead of serving young families, the hospital’s direction would be in serving the growing older population. While that seemed, at the time, like a sound business decision, the loss of a maternity ward in a hospital strikes deep at the heart of what a community hospital does.

Mission Hospital outbid the state for a South Laguna property that city officials and environmental activists thought they were on the verge of acquiring for open space. Earlier this month, the City Council had approved the purchase of what is known as the Domanskis property with Coastal Conservancy funds, but the hospital beat the city to the punch. In a statement released Thursday, the hospital announced the acquisition of the property at 31800 and 31802 Mar Vista and two other parcels.