Driver Injured --Mistakenly Fleeing Sheriff
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A 27-year-old man was critically injured early today when he drove his car off a 100-foot cliff in East Los Angeles while fleeing from sheriff’s deputies he mistakenly thought had come to arrest him.
Randolph Peinado was getting into his car on Princeton Street near Indiana Street at 2:15 a.m. when he spotted a sheriff’s car.
Thinking that officers were seeking him for visiting his estranged wife in violation of a court order, Peinado sped away on Princeton, a dead-end street, and plunged over the cliff at 70 m.p.h., Sgt. Bill Conley said. Although the car landed on its wheels, Peinado was taken to County-USC Medical Center with serious head injuries.
He was booked for driving under the influence of alcohol. The sheriff’s car turned out to be on a routine patrol.
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