Crime & Safety

Area Man, Son, Die in Car Crash

Driver tells officer what happened before succumbing to injuries at the scene.

A Rancho Santa Margarita man and his son were killed Friday in a one-car crash near the California border, while another son was taken to a hospital.

Dead at the scene were Jim Joseph Siciliani, 47, and Nicholas Siciliani, 16. 

A younger son, Gregory, 13, was flown to a Las Vegas-area hospital with undisclosed injuries. 

The incident occurred Friday, about 9:26 p.m., when a 9-1-1 call was received reporting a single car rollover on eastbound Interstate 40 in a construction zone a half-mile east of mile marker 85, about 57 miles from the California border town of Needles.

California Highway Patrol arrived at the accident scene at 9:43 p.m. Jim Siciliani, still clinging to life, told officers he had veered off the road and, when he overcorrected, the car overturned, according to the San Bernardino County Coroner. 

Both he and his son died at the scene.

The elder Siciliani was listed as a realtor with Keller Williams Realty in Mission Viejo, according to a zillow.com profile.

Nicholas Siciliani was going to be a junior at Saddleback Valley Christian School in San Juan Capistrano. A lineman, he had played on the varsity as a freshman but missed last season because of a knee injury.


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