A female driver was arrested on charges of vehicular manslaughter by gross negligence following a crash in the Hyde Park area of South Los Angeles that claimed the life of a 30-year-old woman, police said.
Cheryl Johnson heard the boom of the deadly collision and came outside to see what had happened.
”What made me come out it was a big crash,” she told reporters. ”I thought it was a train wreck. It’s really sad. It’s sad on both parts because the girl who hit the car, she was a young girl, she was very young. The girl that was in the car (and was killed), she was very young, too. One is going to end up in jail for half of her life, and this young lady, her life is gone.
This happens all the time on Crenshaw. Crenshaw drivers need to slow down.”
The LAPD said the crash occurred at 12:31 a.m. at the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and 50th Street, where the victim’s vehicle was allegedly rear-ended by the other car. The victim’s vehicle was stopped at the time of the accident, according to LAPD.
The impact sent the two vehicles into parked vehicles and a power pole and the driver of one of the vehicles was originally arrested on suspicion of DUI. Those charges were later upgraded.
Officers responded to a call of a vehicle into a pole near about 12:31 a.m., when they located the victim, according to LAPD. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
A preliminary investigation determined a driver going northbound on Crenshaw Boulevard struck the other vehicle, sending it into a pole, police said.
A news photographer at the scene reported that parked cars at the location were also damaged in the crash.
The name of the victim was not immediately reported. The name of the driver who caused the deadly accident will not be released until she is formally booked, the LAPD said.
The cause of the accident was under investigation.
