A suspected drunken driver drove right through the roundabout circling historic Orange Plaza Park and its iconic fountain in Old Towne Orange on Sunday morning, the latest of several crashes in recent years.
The driver was headed eastbound when, instead of turning into the roundabout, he continued straight into the little park, said Orange Police Department Lt. Phil McMullin.
The driver crashed through a metal chain barrier, took out a bench and swiped the fountain, McMullin said.
Unlike the major damage of previous collisions, the latest one left some scratches on the fountain tiles, he said.
No injuries were reported, and the driver was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.
In 2023, a 24-year-old man believed to be driving a stolen car plowed through the fountain at high speed, destroying a section of the historic tile work.
In response, the city installed a series of traffic-rated bollards at the entrances to Plaza Park, as well as made some modifications to the park lighting and to the entrances of the circle at the plaza, to deter vehicles from incursions into the park.
The year-long repairs to the fountain following that crash were celebrated by city officials and dignitaries who gathered to turn the fountain on to flow once again in April 2024.
Then just months later, in Nov. 2024, an 18-year-old Rancho Santa Margarita woman was arrested after crashing into the historic fountain, again causing damage to the structure’s tile.
In that case, the driver was headed east on Chapman Avenue when her car crashed into the west curb, then hit several poles, a bench and the recently-reconstructed fountain.
According to Preserve Orange County, the fountain in the “Orange Circle,” as dubbed by locals, was installed in 1937, replacing a bronze fountain built around 1887.
With funds from Orange merchants, a group of local women had organized the Plaza park at the turn of the century, planting trees and flower beds, adding the original bronze fountain, and installing a flagpole.