One Killed After Truck Crashes Into Tree

A solo traffic accident in Pacific Beach killed a 19-year-old Mira Mesa resident Tuesday, sent five other young men to hospitals and left one of them facing possible drunken driving and vehicular manslaughter charges.

The group was in a 2003 Dodge Ram truck that skidded off Lamont Street at high speed and smashed into a large pepper tree near Thomas Avenue about 2:30 a.m., according to the San Diego Police Department.
The impact hurled
19-year-old Nikko Maeva, who was riding in the cargo bed of the northbound pickup, into the back of the cab, mortally injuring him, SDPD traffic Detective Dan Wall said.
Four other passengers who had been riding in the front of the truck -- all men in their early 20s -- suffered various injuries, Wall said. One sustained a broken back, another fractured a leg bone and another suffered broken ribs, he said.
The driver, 25-year-old Quinton Dickens of El Cajon, complained of pain to his abdomen, back and neck.
Medics took all six men to various medical centers. Maeva was pronounced dead at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla about 3:15 a.m., according to the county medical examiner's office.
The others were expected to fully recover. Dickens will be booked into county jail upon his release from the hospital, Wall said.
The precise cause of the accident was not immediately clear, though skid marks showed that Dickens was swerving or "fishtailing" on the street just prior to losing control of the truck, the detective said.
The extent of damage to the pickup clearly indicated that the driver was speeding, according to Wall.
The group had spent the evening at a nearby beach, drinking around a bonfire in celebration of the 21st birthday of one of the men, Wall said.