Head-on Freeway Wreck Leaves Northridge Girl on Respirator

A 16-year-old Northridge girl was listed in critical condition Friday after her compact car smashed head-on into a station wagon that was traveling the wrong way on the San Bernardino Freeway in Ontario.

Holly Bergman was taken to San Antonio Community Hospital in Upland, where she was hooked up to a respirator and was possibly suffering brain damage, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The California Highway Patrol was not sure how or why 84-year-old John Arnold ended up driving east in the westbound fast lane of the freeway Thursday night. Arnold, of Hesperia, was pronounced dead in the emergency room of the same hospital shortly after the accident.

Two passengers in Bergman’s 1982 Toyota Corolla suffered less severe injuries. Klaus Engrissat, 16, of Northridge was treated and released for cuts and bruises. Steven Carayanis, also 16 and of Northridge, was transferred to Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Panorama City, where he was in fair condition with facial cuts and other injuries, a hospital spokeswoman said.

CHP accident investigator Ron Baker said the accident occurred about 7:40 p.m. Baker said Arnold’s vehicle almost hit a car driving ahead of Bergman, but that the driver of that car, a Pasadena man, swerved, sideswiping Arnold’s station wagon.

Arnold’s vehicle then bounced off the freeway median into Bergman’s path, Baker said. The Pasadena driver escaped injury and helped rescuers at the scene.