A 75-year-old woman is fighting for her life at UCI Medical Center after a deadly wrong-way, head-on collision Monday in Westminster.  

Officers with the Westminster Police Department responded to the 14500 block of Beach Boulevard just before 1 p.m. and found four vehicles involved in the collision. 

The wrong-way driver, a man in his 80s, was traveling northbound at a high rate of speed in the southbound lane of Beach Boulevard when the crash occurred, police said.

The man was declared dead at the scene. His passenger, a woman in her 70s died at the hospital.   

A third victim’s vehicle was struck head on. Firefighters had to use the jaws of life to pull the 75-year-old woman out of the car before she could be rushed to the hospital. 

“She’s in critical condition,” the victim’s daughter, Laura Herzog, said of her mother Vicki. She’s got multiple breaks and multiple injuries from the vehicle accident.”  

Laura said her mom had just been planning to leave on a cruise.  

“She was the matriarch of our family,” Laura explained. “She was all of our biggest cheerleaders and now it’s time for us to be hers.” 

Police have yet to release the names of the two people killed in the collision. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.