Head-On Crash Kills 2 People on 605 Freeway

The driver of a stolen car careened down the 605 Freeway in the wrong direction Friday in the city of Industry before colliding with two other vehicles and a guardrail, killing two of the stolen car’s passengers and seriously injuring the driver and a fourth occupant, authorities said.

It was unclear if the driver, 32, was trying to elude police at the time of the 10:30 a.m. crash. Baldwin Park police had reported attempting unsuccessfully to stop a similar car in the area shortly before the accident.

It was the second fatal crash this week involving a wrong-way driver on Los Angeles-area freeways, and the third since July 20.

The two deceased victims in Friday’s crash, who police did not identify pending notification of next of kin, were said to be female and in their mid- to late teens.

The 32-year-old driver, whose name was not released, underwent surgery at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and was in critical condition, a hospital spokeswoman said. A 23-year-old pregnant passenger was transported to County-USC Medical Center, where she was listed in serious condition with a possible head injury.

Officer John Escobedo, a California Highway Patrol spokesman, said the driver of the car, a white Honda Prelude reported stolen Aug. 13 from Baldwin Park, turned south into northbound 605 Freeway traffic at Valley Boulevard.

The car traveled about 70 mph in the slow lane for about a mile before glancing off a Chevrolet pickup, Escobedo said. The car struck a guardrail and then careened back into traffic before colliding with a station wagon and coming to rest north of the interchange with the Pomona Freeway. The driver of the station wagon sustained facial injuries, Escobedo said.

Baldwin Park Police Lt. Bob Curtis said an officer from his department had attempted to stop a small white car that was traveling recklessly in traffic on Temple Avenue, about 1 1/2 blocks from the Valley Boulevard freeway ramp. He said the officer lost the car in traffic shortly before the crash was reported.

“We don’t have a plate. We don’t have any information the vehicles were one and the same,” Curtis said.

On Tuesday, a crash occurred on the Foothill Freeway in Glendale when a driver sped about 10 miles through oncoming traffic before colliding head-on with another car, killing the other motorist.

The driver of the wrong-way car in that crash, 34-year-old Alexito Manuva of West Covina, was held Friday in a Los Angeles County Jail medical ward. Authorities plan to seek a murder charge against him Monday, according to CHP Officer Gretchen Jacobs, an agency spokeswoman.

Jacobs said police will ask prosecutors to charge Manuva with felony manslaughter and hit and run. She said the CHP also would seek a charge of felony driving under the influence, pending the results of blood tests.

Manuva, who has a history of drug use, was on probation and was due in court to face a felony drug possession charge just three hours before the crash, which occurred shortly before noon just west of the Lowell Avenue exit.

On July 20, two people died in a collision involving a driver who was going the wrong way on the San Diego Freeway in Inglewood. In that incident, a van driven by Eduardo Velazquez, 28, of Los Angeles collided head-on with a compact car in the southbound lanes near Manchester Avenue, killing both of the car’s occupants, said CHP Officer Dean Bogios.

Bogios said Velazquez later was determined to have a blood-alcohol level of .22, nearly triple the legal limit for drivers. Velazquez was treated for injuries at the jail medical ward, Bogios said. The case remains under investigation.