Father’s Concern Proved Tragically True for Teen

Shaken by news accounts of a fatal freeway accident caused by an elderly wrong-way driver, Northridge resident Joe Bregman had a talk with his two children last month. He warned them, he recalled this weekend, to beware of confused drivers who mistakenly enter freeway exit ramps.

Just a few weeks later, Bregman’s daughter Holly is fighting for her life in an Upland hospital, the victim of just such an accident. Holly, 16, was critically injured Thursday evening when her compact car was struck head-on by a station wagon traveling eastbound in the westbound fast lane of the San Bernardino Freeway in Ontario, authorities said.

Now Bregman, a lawyer with offices in Encino, says he plans to launch a campaign to compel the state to do more to prevent such accidents.

“My feeling is it has got to be stopped,” he said. “There are going to be more and more people who are going to be hit this way. My daughter is just one of many. They need signs, warning lights, flashing lights, metering devices--whatever.”

Holly remained unconscious Sunday in San Antonio Community Hospital with multiple fractures, head injuries and possible brain damage, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The driver of the station wagon, John Arnold, 84, of Hesperia died at the same hospital shortly after the crash.

California Highway Patrol officials said Friday that they were uncertain how Arnold ended up driving the wrong way on the freeway. The investigation is continuing, CHP officer Stan Hannahs said.

“All the markings in the world can be overcome by a person that may be under the influence or a person that is just not cognizant of those markings or ignores them,” Hannahs said.

Bregman said he discussed wrong-way freeway drivers with his daughter and 19-year-old son, Seth, after a Dec. 6 crash in which a Sun Valley couple was killed when their car was struck head-on on the Golden State Freeway near Griffith Park. The driver of the other car, Julia Williams, 74, had allegedly driven more than two miles in the wrong direction. Three others were injured in that crash.

Last August, a suspected drunken driver heading the wrong way on the Costa Mesa Freeway in Santa Ana caused a three-vehicle accident that left one person dead and four injured.

Holly Bregman, a junior at Granada Hills High School, was returning from a ski trip to the San Bernardino Mountains when the accident occurred.

“I’m shocked that it has happened to us,” the injured girl’s father said. “That’s the irony of it. I was extremely upset last month. I had an extended discussion with my own family about it. It’s always been a worry of mine. I talked to my kids about that. I said that’s one of the things that you have to be very careful about.”

He said his daughter is hooked up to a respirator. “Doctors are not optimistic because she’s not being responsive,” he said. “We’re praying for our daughter. There’s always that ray of hope.”

Two passengers in the girl’s car, Klaus Engrissat and Steven Carayanis, both 16 and from Northridge, suffered less serious injuries. Engrissat was treated for cuts and bruises. Carayanis was transferred to Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Panorama City, where he is in fair condition with facial cuts and other injuries, a hospital spokeswoman said.