A 40-year-old nurse has been arrested and charged with manslaughter in the Windsor Hills crash that killed five people, including a pregnant woman, police sources confirmed to The Times on Friday.
The woman was identified as the driver of the Mercedes-Benz that sped down La Brea Ave toward Slauson Avenue between 80 and 100 miles per hour at the time of the crash Thursday afternoon, sources said. Investigators are testing his blood to determine if he was under the influence and he is cooperating with California Highway Patrol investigators, two sources said.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney will formally charge him on Monday.
The arrest comes as the coroner identified the pregnant woman who died in the high-speed crash.
Asherey Ryan, 23, was the pregnant woman killed in Thursday’s crash, sources confirmed. It was not immediately known which car she was in or how she was involved in the crash.
The names of the other four dead have not been released.
Eight people were also injured in the accident. The LA County Fire Department responded to the crash shortly after 1:40 p.m
After the crash, a streak of fire burned to the ground.
Smoke could be seen rising from miles away.
Officer Franco Pepi, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, said Thursday afternoon that three adults, including a pregnant woman, and an infant died in the crash.
Authorities later found the remains of another person inside one of the burned vehicles, he said. That person’s gender or age were not known Thursday night.
Ryan also lost his unborn son, which the CHP counted as an additional death “due to rare circumstances,” Pepi said.
A Windsor Hills intersection caught fire in a multi-vehicle crash Thursday.
Authorities took eight people to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center for treatment, he said. Of the injured, six were teenagers and one suffered serious injuries.
An investigation is underway after a fiery multi-car crash left five dead, including a pregnant woman and a baby.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
A woman who did not want to be named told The Times that a Mercedes-Benz hit her car as she was leaving a United Oil gas station.
“I was leaving, I had gas,” he said. “Suddenly that Mercedes is approaching me … fire. I didn’t have time to think about it. The car hit me. I swerved, I hit the bench on the side.”
The crash caused him to fear a gasoline-fueled explosion, he told The Times.
Nearby, the wrecked Mercedes-Benz with its hood torn off had crashed into a curb.
Investigators believe the driver of the Mercedes-Benz was responsible for the crash, Pepi said.
The residents of the area check the site of the fatal accident.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
The cause of the crash was not immediately known, but the CHP spokesman said investigators determined the Mercedes was traveling “at a high rate of speed” and ran a red light while traveling southbound on La Brea.
The woman was hospitalized but was conscious and spoke with CHP investigators Thursday night, he said, adding that he did not know the extent of her injuries.
At least six vehicles were involved in the crash, three of which caught fire, Pepi said. The others suffered moderate damage.
Members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department embrace at the scene of the multi-fatal crash.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Mourners began to gather at the site of the accident on Friday. Witnesses described a horrific scene.
Eran Hall has worked at La Brea Gas across the street for about eight months and has seen several car accidents, but never like the one that took place Thursday.
“Everybody was shocked,” Hall told The Times on Friday morning. “Some people started running away from the gas station because of all the flames. Other people started to help the drivers of the other cars that were pushed to the side.”
At least two people ran out with fire extinguishers, Hall said.
But Henry Sanchez, who works at the Sinclair gas station, said the flames were out of control.
“At that point it was too late for people to do anything,” Sanchez said.
Before the accident, Sanchez heard the sound of the car coming down the hill.
“You hear the tires screeching,” Sanchez said. “The sound stuck with me.”
Noel Senior, who works at Little Kingston Jamaican, heard a loud boom and when he left his business and looked down the street, he saw a column of flames rising from the gas station sign. “There was nothing we could do about it. Nobody was going to get out of the fire,” Senior said.
Veronica Esquival he told KTLA that a baby rested at the crossroads. “One of the workers came and saw me with the baby and took the baby out of my hands. Someone tried to revive the baby, but the baby was gone,” he said.
