Girl, 3, Critically Hurt in Sylmar Car Crash

An 18-year-old Sylmar youth, driving an auto taken without permission from his father’s body shop, skidded at high speed through a stop sign in Sylmar Monday and hit another car, injuring a mother and her two children, police reported.

A 3-year-old daughter was in critical condition with head injuries at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles.

Victor Manuel Diaz Jr. was arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run driving and driving an auto without the owner’s permission, police said.

Margarita Vela, 30, of Sylmar, the driver of the other car, was treated at Holy Cross Hospital for a broken right shoulder and released. Her son, Guadalupe, 9, was treated for bruises and released.

Police said Margarita Vela and her daughter, whose first name was not given, were hurled from their car by the collision.

Police said Diaz ran from the scene of the accident to his father’s shop. “His father apparently insisted rather forcefully that he return and brought him back to the scene about 30 minutes later,” a police spokesman said.