Authorities Tuesday released the name of a man killed in a driving lesson crash in Laguna Beach.

The victim was identified as James Politoski, 64, of Laguna Beach, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Department.

Politoski was in the passenger seat of a car just before 4:15 p.m. Monday when it crashed through a fence in the upper parking lot of the now-shuttered Gelson’s Market at 24 Monarch Bay Plaza, according to the Laguna Beach Police Department. The vehicle continued down an embankment before coming to a stop on Coast Highway, police said.

The man’s 15-year-old daughter, who had a driver’s permit, was behind the wheel and sustained significant injuries, police said. She was taken to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, where she remained Tuesday but was expected to surv

See Full Page