Traffic Accidents

Luxury Car Hit-And-Run Drivers Running Rampant in L.A.

Why are drivers of luxury cars in Los Angeles involved in a bloody binge of hit-and-run driving, leaving innocent victims for dead? Are rich folk out of their minds? This is felony manslaughter, not "oops." The city is offering a $50,000 reward to help find the driver of a silver or white Mercedes ... More >>

Bicyclist Sustains Major Injuries In Valley Village Hit-And-Run By Mercedes SUV

See also: Hit-and-Run Blowback on LAPD. A series of hit-and-run crimes on bicyclists have L.A. bike activists fuming this spring. The community was buzzing about a near-death hit-and-run in Griffith Park last month. Now there's this:

Hit-and-Run Blowback on LAPD

Doctors try to save bicyclist's remaining leg as legislator calls for crackdown

L.A.'s Hit-And-Run Epidemic Inspires New Focus At City Hall

Following LA Weekly's eye-opening report on the city's hit-and-run epidemic, one L.A. city Councilman wants something done. Joe Buscaino is asking the LAPD to report to the council's Public Safety Committee "about what efforts are being undertaken by the Department to curtail hit-and-run incidents ... More >>

Hit-And-Run Artists Will No Longer Get Off After 3 Years Under Proposal By Mike Gatto

See also: *L.A.'s Bloody Hit-and-Run Epidemic. Perhaps one of the main reasons for L.A.'s crazy hit-and-run epidemic is that if you flee the site of an accident and wait it out for three years, you can't be prosecuted. That's because the statute of limitations would be up on your case. After readi ... More >>

Hit-And-Run Loophole Lets You Walk After 3 Years; Mike Gatto Wants That Fixed

In the wake of Simone Wilson's excellent LA Weekly coverage of the city's hit-and-run crisis, including the revelation that nearly half of all vehicle collisions in town involve people who flee the scene, an L.A.-based state lawmaker wants to do something about it. State Assemblyman Mike Gatto, who ... More >>

L.A. Hit-and-Run Crisis Uncovered by L.A. Weekly Prompts Official Demand for Answers from Charlie Beck and LAPD

Please read L.A.'s Bloody Hit-and-Run Epidemic and Victim Finds Hit-and-Run Driver Citing an L.A. Weekly probe that unveiled a hit-and-run crisis in Los Angeles, with drivers fleeing 48 percent of all crashes, Councilman Joe Buscaino asked the L.A. City Council to require LAPD to explain how it plan ... More >>

L.A.'s Hit and Run Epidemic and Andrea Alarcon Have Readers Hopping Mad

LAPD Motorcycle Officer Crashes Into Tree In Latest Case Of L.A. Hit-And-Run Madness

See also: *L.A.'s Bloody Hit-and-Run Epidemic. Um. We told you L.A. has a hit-and-run epidemic, with nearly 1 out of every 2 reported traffic collisions in town involving a driver who bolts. If Simone Wilson's excellent cover story, "L.A.'s Bloody Hit-and-Run Epidemic," didn't drive the point home ... More >>

L.A.'s Bloody Hit-and-Run Epidemic

The city ignores a crisis of car-as-weapon crime in the streets

How To Get Away With A Hit-And-Run In Los Angeles

Nearly one out of two car accidents in Los Angeles involves a hit-and-run. There are 4,000 injury or death-related collisions involving people fleeing the scene in L.A. each year. One-hundred of those cases involved pedestrian deaths. Those facts we know from Simone Wilson's excellent cover story i ... More >>

Assemblyman Mike Feuer, Candidate For L.A. City Attorney, Injured In Car Crash

Update: More detail below. Feuer is in ICU, suffered lacerated spleen and broken ribs.Assemblyman Mike Feuer, who is running for L.A. city attorney, has been hospitalized after a car crash this afternoon.According to his campaign, Feuer was on his way to the swearing-in ceremony for D.A. Jackie Lace ... More >>

Lindsay Lohan Forsakes Legal Troubles in L.A. for New York ... Where She's Arrested

So after years of run-ins with the po-po in Los Angeles, including two drunk-driving convictions, hit-and-run allegations and a jewelry-theft conviction, Lindsay Lohan decided to hightail it to New York City. There she could make a fresh start away from the paparazzi and, theoretically, at least, g ... More >>

Ryan Koyama, Rancho Palos Verdes Optometrist, Killed When Benz Collides With Escaped Horse

A 69-year-old man driving south on Crenshaw Boulevard just after 2 a.m. this morning crashed into a horse that was weaving through lanes near Palos Verdes Drive North, says the California Highway Patrol. The coroner has since identified the driver, who was pronounced dead soon after at Torrance Mem ... More >>

Michael Vega, 25-Year-Old Cyclist, Left to Die in Inland Empire Ditch by Hit-and-Run Driver

Not even a bike helmet could save 25-year-old Michael Ray Vega, the Norco resident killed in Rancho Cucamonga yesterday evening by a hit-and-run driver who left him to die along Foothill Boulevard. "You were a great dude," his friend Lacey LeBlanc wrote on Twitter. "No one deserves the fate you rec ... More >>

Jose Mendoza, Bell Gardens Teen, Killed by Hit-and-Run Driver in Popular Racing Spot

The victim's name was Jose Mendoza, not Jose Mendez. Post and headline have been updated to reflect this fact. Last night around 11 p.m. in the southeastern corner of L.A. County, a hit-and-run driver left 19-year-old Jose de Jesus Mendoza Jr. dead in an area of Commerce known for street racing. S ... More >>

Claire Rose: Friends Say Santa Monica Woman Was Killed by Hit-and-Run Driver on Her Birthday

In Santa Monica's third serious hit-and-run in as many weeks, a 30-year-old woman was killed by the driver of a dark Toyota sedan just after midnight on Monday morning. Friends on Facebook and Twitter identify the victim as Santa Monica resident Claire Rose. They say she was celebrating her birthda ... More >>

D.A. Will Not File Charges in John Bryson Hit and Runs

Just weeks after John Bryson quietly tendered his resignation from Obama's cabinet, the Los Angeles district attorney has declined to press charges against the ex-commerce secretary. "The District Attorney's Office has declined to file a case against former Secretary of Commerce John Bryon," Sand ... More >>

Texting While Driving Could be Federal Crime Soon

The federal government has been getting all up in your business lately. One federal whistle blower last year said he believes the National Security Agency is storing all our emails. You know, just in case. And President Obama recently flip-flopped on medical marijuana, saying flat out that pot busin ... More >>

Teen Bicyclist in Hit-And-Run With Car? Cops Say Celina Pangburn Was In It For Cash

Bicycle rights advocates, ever a vocal and Portlandia-esque bunch, have made a lot of wind over alleged cases of motorists' hit-and-run collisions against their ilk. Often their argument is that local police don't investigate the crashes as they would a car-on-car accident because the whole world, ... More >>

Teen Girls Text Behind The Wheel Twice as Much as Boys (Surprised?)

Oh boy. Let's just start off by saying this is the first time in the history of human civilization that a stereotype ended up being 100 percent true. It turns out that teen girls are twice as likely as their male counterparts to text while driving. Huge surprise, we know. The AAA Foundation for ... More >>

Manhattan Beach Cops' Hit-and-Run Career Fiasco

Gabriel Perez Facio, Pomona Cyclist, Killed in Hit-and-Run; Dragged Half-Block by SUV

Updated at the bottom: Suspected hit-and-run driver turns himself in -- likely due to "large amount of media coverage" surrounding Facio's death. Originally posted December 29 at 2:15 p.m. In one of the most horrific hit-and-runs of the year, Pomona resident Gabriel Perez Facio was killed by an SU ... More >>

Marijuana-Using Drivers Are Better Drivers, Research Suggests: Anti-Drug Activists Harsh That Mellow With Retort

​Seeing as L.A. is the marijuana dispensary capital of the world, it also must be the stoned-driving (DWS) epicenter of America as well. Right? Well, it's that kind of thinking that got a widely publicized paper on smoking weed and getting behind the wheel in trouble. The research sort of sug ... More >>

USC Student Knocked off Motorcycle by Hit-and-Run Driver 'in Critical Condition'

Google MapsThe driver was last seen speeding west on Lexington.​A 21-year-old motorcycle rider who attended USC was run over by a burgundy GMC Safari van from 1993 yesterday, just after the sun went down. After crashing into the bike at Vermont and Lexington near Los Feliz, the van took off do ... More >>

Los Angeles Comes in Second Among American Big Cities in Total Pedestrians Killed in '00s

prayitnoWalking in L.A.​You can sleep well knowing that L.A. came in at No. 27 -- if you weigh for population and walking to work -- in a national ranking of big-city pedestrian deaths by the organization Transportation for America. Or you can wake up in a cold sweat knowing that we had the se ... More >>

Curly Junior Ross Killed by DUI Driver Who Went Wrong Way, With Bloody Car, Through a DUI Checkpoint, Cops Say

LASDThis car, wrong way, through a DUI checkpoint -- allegedly.​Added: Sheriff's officials say the District Attorney's office this week charged the suspect "with Second Degree Murder, Felony DUI, & Hit and Run from a traffic collision." Here's a doozy of a tale out of scenic Lancaster. Sheri ... More >>

Texting While Driving Could Get You Pulled Over And Ticketed: LAPD Mounts April Crackdown

amber10_79Don't do it.​You got away with it too long, L.A. Now the LAPD is on the war path for hardcore ... texters. That's right, this month the department is launching a crackdown on people who text and talk (headset to their ears) while they drive. We wish this was an April Fool's joke (l ... More >>

Hit-and-Run Outrage

Neely Dinkins, Drunk Driver Who Fatally Dragged Baby Girl One Mile to His Long Beach Home, Gets 36 Years

kevin dean​In one of the more heinous crimes we've ever come across, a drunk driver hit and dragged a baby girl in her toy wagon all the way to his home. She died. Now the man, 35-year-old Neely Lejon Dinkins, will be dragged through the state prison system, but maybe for not as long as you'd ... More >>

(VIDEO) Drunk Driver Kills L.A.'s Demetria And Kelvin Dorsey During Heated LAPD Pursuit

KTLAKelvin and Demetria Dorsey, killed by a drunk driver on New Year's Eve, were both parents and grandparents​On New Year's Eve, just before midnight, Jorge Alberto Molina, a 27-year-old Culver City resident, ran a red light on Florence Avenue at Van Ness Avenue in Inglewood. Two traffic cops ... More >>

Onion Truck Causes Traffic Nightmare

Flickr/psyberartistbag of white onions​ No this isn't a fake headline from The Onion, although it would be pretty funny, albeit briefly and only for a couple of punchlines, if a truck spilling of copies of the satirical newspaper caused the kind of traffic chaos that the overturned truck of ac ... More >>

HONK IF YOU'RE PRETENTIOUS

LAPD Issues 159 Tickets In Pedestrian Safety Crackdown

LAPD officers began the crackdown at the intersection of Victory Blvd and Satsuma Ave.​An alarming increase in pedestrian deaths over the year spurred a crackdown by the LAPD Tuesday in North Hollywood. The operation is part of the Valley Division's "Pedestrian and Child Safety Campaign." Acco ... More >>

LAPD Plans To Give Higher Priority To Car-Versus-Bicycle Collisions

​The Los Angeles Police Department will soon give higher priority to collision investigations involving vehicles versus bicycles, particularly hit-and-runs, a department official tells the Weekly. A special order taking away such investigations from beat cops and giving them to one of the depa ... More >>

Suspect In Valley Village Slayings Found Near Seattle

Nerses Galstyan.​Authorities near Seattle apprehended Nerses Galstyan, the man named as the prime suspect in the fatal shootings of four men earlier this month at a Valley Village restaurant, the Seattle Times reports. The U.S. Marshals Service's Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force ... More >>

Man Shot Near Long Beach Medical Marijuana Dispensary

​In the wake of a debate about whether or not medical marijuana dispensaries attract crime in places like Los Angeles, Long Beach police are reporting a man was shot in an attack that might have been connected to a pot shop there. The shooting happened Monday shortly after 9 p.m. in an alley ... More >>

Underground Japanese Beatmaker DJ Nujabes Confirmed Dead

​It was confirmed today that underground Japanese beatmaker Jun "Nujabes" Seba died last February 26 after a car accident. His family buried him privately and the anouncement of his death did not make the news until today. Nujabes was known for delicate, often mournful beats that were respect ... More >>

LAPD Plans Weekend Crackdown On Motorcyclists

​Get your motor runnin'. Or maybe not. Responding to a statewide increase in motorcycle fatalities, the Los Angeles Police Department this weekend plans to crackdown on two-wheeled law breakers. The LAPD cites a 91 percent increase in motorcycle fatalities from 2000 (275 dead) to 2008 (533). ... More >>

Cal State Long Beach Closed Due To Storms, Flooding

​Campus officials closed Cal State Long Beach at 3 p.m. Wednesday as a result of flooding and hazardous road conditions that would greet many of its students. The closure is in effect through Thursday, officials said. "The determination was made because of the impact of flooding on campus and ... More >>

Lack Of Arrest In Alleged Hit-And-Run Questioned

​The Los Angeles Police Department's response to a hit-and-run collision that injured a cyclist last week downtown has come under scrutiny as the driver was never arrested. The collision on East Second Street was reported shortly before 8:30 a.m. Wednesday and it injured, of all people, a man ... More >>

Los Angeles' Red-Light Ticket Ripoff

Cameras capture motorists and huge fines follow. Streets may not be safer

Mother Recognized For Wrestling With Bank Robber

While most of us would run at the sound of gunshots coming from a bank, a mother's instinct prompted one woman to head toward the danger: 48-year-old Kathleen Khalid ran into the bank because her son was there cashing a check.​ Upon her arrival she found a security guard struggling with a sus ... More >>

Trial For Accused Hit-Run Couple

Claudia Cabrera and Josue Luna, the thirtysomething married couple accused of a horrific hit-and-run accident outside USC last spring, have been ordered to stand trial September 29, according to City News Service. Cabrera was allegedly behind the wheel in the early morning hours of Sunday, March 29, ... More >>

USC Hit & Run Arrest

See updated report here.The L.A. Times reports that Los Angeles police have arrested a woman in connection with the hit and run accident outside USC that killed 18-year-old Adrianna Bachan and seriously injured a 19-year-old companion, Marcus Garfinkle. The two students were crossing Jefferson Boule ... More >>

LAPD: USC Hit & Run Arrest Details

Speaking near a sidewalk memorial, LAPD First Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell has just disclosed the identities of the driver and passengers of the car that struck two USC students early Sunday morning. Los Angeles resident Claudia Cabrera, 30, was arrested today and remains in Van Nuys Women's Jail ... More >>

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