Crash Victim, 26, Suffered Stroke Before Plowing Off 241 Tollway

A Rancho Santa Margarita man who died when his automobile crashed off the 241 toll road suffered a stroke prior to the fatal accident, the Orange County Coroner determined.

Edward Dennis Dejak was killed from injuries in a one-car car crash on the night of April 18, apparently after losing control of his 2008 Toyota Camry. He was 26.

The coroner said Thursday that multiple blunt force injuries from the crash were responsible for death, but that Dejak also had an internal brain hemorhage, usually associated with hypertension, as well as an enlarged heart. The stroke was cited as a contributing factor in the death.

"It's a serious condition that he had," Dan Aikin said, "but it is survivable."

Not so with the crash injuries suffered from plunging about 100 feet into a ravine between Los Alisos and Santa Margarita Parkway, , 

Dejak's final moments were probably filled with confusion as he struggled for control of the vehicle during the nighttime crash. 

According to CHP spokesman Chris Goodwin, who says the department's investigation is ongoing, Dejak appeared to go in a number of directions on his fateful trip. What's known is that he was going southbound in the center divider and then veered into northbound traffic lanes, went up and down an embankment, went back into the northbound traffic lanes before he again veered left to go up—and then over—an embankement into the ravine below.

Dejak was airlifted to Mission Hospital, where he died shortly after midnight on April 21.