Two Elderly Pedestrians Killed in Separate Fullerton Accidents

Two elderly pedestrians were struck and killed within minutes of each other while crossing streets less than a block apart Thursday night in Fullerton, police said.

“It’s very unusual,” said Sgt. Bud Lathrop. “Sometimes we’ll go all year without a pedestrian accident, and then here we have two people killed at the same time, just around the corner.”

Neither driver was held or cited, Lathrop said, but both accidents are under investigation.

Melville C. Johnson, 81, of Fullerton, was hit by a 1970 Volkswagen driven by Robert Kenneth Lindemenn, 37, also of Fullerton, Lathrop said.

According to Lathrop, Johnson was walking alone in a crosswalk on Brookhurst Street at Southgate Avenue about 6:30 p.m. when Lindemenn’s southbound car hit him.

“There’s no light at the crosswalk,” Lathrop said, but he added that a driver has a “duty to stop. The pedestrian has the right of way,” he said.

Johnson was taken to Martin Luther Hospital Medical Center, Anaheim, where he died shortly after 9 p.m., Lathrop said. A spokesman for the coroner’s office said death was from multiple injuries and internal bleeding.

A passenger in Lindemenn’s car suffered minor injuries, Lathrop said.

The second fatality occurred at 7:15 on Orangethorpe Avenue, just west of Brookhurst, as Marvin M. Bogart, 70, of Lima, Ohio, was walking south across Orangethorpe. Lathrop said Bogart was walking with a friend, not in a crosswalk, when a westbound 1977 Chevrolet Camaro, driven by Steven Bruce Shepard, 20, of Fullerton, struck him. Lathrop said there was no evidence that Shepard was speeding.

Bogart was taken by ambulance to UCI Medical Center, where he died at 7:55, Lathrop said.