Elderly Fil-Am killed by suspected drunken driver in Murrieta

MURRIETA, Calif. – A 73-year-old Filipino American woman was killed and two other people injured in a head-on wreck caused by a suspected drunken driver, authorities said Thursday.

Belinda Baliton was fatally injured about 11:50 p.m. Wednesday near the intersection of Hancock Avenue and Parkcrest Drive, according to the Murrieta Police Department.

Anthony Ryan Scott, 29, of Murrieta was arrested on suspicion of DUI gross vehicular manslaughter and DUI resulting in great bodily injury for allegedly causing the collision.

Scott was booked into the Byrd Detention Center Thursday morning, but he posted a $75,000 bond and was released a few hours later.

The victim was taken to Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, where she died less than an hour after arrival at the hospital. Image: Southwest Healthcare Inland Valley Hospital

According to Murrieta police Lt. Enrique Romero, Scott was driving on Heacock, less than a quarter-mile south of Parkcrest, when his “vehicle veered into oncoming traffic.”

The suspect’s car slammed into the one in which Baliton was a passenger, inflicting grave injuries, Romero said.

The victim was taken to Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, where she died less than an hour later.

The man driving the vehicle she was in, whose identity was not disclosed, suffered major injuries and required “emergency surgery” at the same hospital. However, he’s expected to recover, according to the lieutenant.

He said that Scott’s passenger, also not identified, suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was also hospitalized.

“A driving-while-impaired investigation was initiated,” Romero said.

“Based on that investigation, officers formed the opinion that the driver had been operating a motor vehicle while impaired.”

Every day, about 37 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes – that’s one person every 39 minutes.

In 2022, 13,524 people died in alcohol-impaired driving traffic deaths, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Over the 10-year period from 2012 to 2021, about 10,850 people died each year in drunk driving car accidents. These tragic car accidents involving drunk driving are on the rise nationwide.

“For the second year, we are learning that drunk driving took the lives of more than 13,000 people, a level we had not seen since 2007. We are losing children, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and people we love to tragic and avoidable crashes,” said Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) CEO Stacey D. Stewart in a statement released last month.