Hollywood: Female taxi driver, 33, dies in traffic collision

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A white taxi driver was killed in the intersection of Highland Avenue and Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood at 2:20 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 11.

Karen Karapetyan, 33, of Garden Grove was killed when a driver allegedly under the influence of alcohol ran a red light, injuring two others, police said. Avishkar Padye, 29, a white resident of Los Angeles, was driving his 2008 BMW southbound on Highland when he allegedly failed to stop for a red light at Sunset, police said. He continued through the intersection and collided with the driver of Karapetyan’s cab. The force of the impact caused the cab to slide into a Toyota that was stopped on northbound Highland Avenue. The taxi and the Toyota then collided with another BMW that also was stopped in a northbound lane of Highland, police said.

Paramedics extracted Karapetyan from his cab and took him to a hospital, where doctors attempted to perform live-saving measures, but he died an hour after the collision. The drivers and passengers of the other vehicles involved in the crash suffered minor injuries, officials said. Padhye was booked on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.

—Richard Winton