O.C. fire cadet in critical condition after being hit by DUI driver

Christian Bedolla, an Orange County Fire Authority cadet and four-time cancer survivor, is again fighting for his life after being hit by a suspected DUI driver in Laguna Niguel on Tuesday night.

Authorities say Bedolla and a friend were on their way to pick up food when the driver ran a red light and hit them at the intersection of Cabot Road and Crown Valley Parkway.

The 21-year-old cadet is currently in critical condition in the ICU, in an induced coma. His friend who was in the crash was treated and released that night.

According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, the driver was arrested for a DUI and remains in custody on $75,000 bail.

About nine months before this accident, Bedolla rang the bell after surviving a rare lymphoma that he was diagnosed with in 2019.

KTLA’s Chip Yost spoke with Bedolla’s girlfriend, who said they’d returned just two weeks ago from a trip to celebrate him becoming cancer-free.

In a GoFundMe campaign created to help him, the organizer wrote that Bedolla “is an Orange County Fire Authority Cadet who has dreamt of becoming a firefighter since he was a child.”

The post added that “He has maintained a positive attitude through his treatment and became cancer-free in 2024.”

The GoFundMe page can be found here.

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