3 Killed, 9 Injured in Road Crashes

Three people were killed and nine others were injured, three critically, in separate collisions involving stalled pickup trucks on San Fernando Valley freeways early Sunday, authorities said.

“It’s just a freak occurrence with two red trucks on the same day,” said Martin Ward, a dispatcher for the California Highway Patrol.

In one crash, a car plowed into a stalled pickup truck on the Golden State Freeway near the Ventura Freeway shortly after midnight. Investigators believe the truck, which had stalled in the slow lane of the Golden State near Glendale, was carrying at least eight people, many of them passengers in the truck bed’s camper shell.

A man and a woman in the truck were fatally injured and three people, including a child, were critically hurt in the 12:14 a.m. accident, according to the CHP.

Pronounced dead at the accident scene was Ramiro Rosas, 24, of Anaheim, according to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. Another truck passenger, Perla Ibanez, 17, also of Anaheim, died later after being taken to Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center, the coroner’s office said.

A 5-year-old boy was taken by helicopter to Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles, where he was listed in critical condition, said Bob Collis, a spokesman for the Los Angeles City Fire Department.

An unidentified 32-year-old man was taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena in critical condition, and a 30-year-old woman, also in critical condition, was taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, Collis said.

Ward said two other children, a 2-year-old girl and a 7-month-old boy, were taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena with serious injuries.

Four other victims--two 30-year-old men, a 22-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman--were treated at area hospitals for minor injuries, he said.

Fire officials said the truck carried most of its passengers in the back bed, which was covered by a camper shell.

As firefighters treated the most seriously injured crash victims, others sobbed and prayed on the pavement nearby, witnesses said.

Investigators were trying to determine who was driving the two vehicles. The accident remained under investigation late Sunday.

In a separate accident, a 30-year-old motorcyclist from Santa Clarita was killed when he hit a stalled truck in the southbound carpool lane of the San Diego Freeway near Devonshire Street about 6 a.m., Ward said.

The truck’s lights were not visible and the cyclist was thrown into the truck bed, Ward said.

Authorities said the motorcyclist, whose identity was not released, was taken to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, where he died a short time later.