Coast Highway Truck-Car Crash Kills 9-Year-Old Boy

A 9-year-old Huntington Beach boy was killed Sunday morning when the pickup truck in which he was riding hit a car and rolled over several times on Pacific Coast Highway, according to Huntington Beach police.

Steven Forrester Oliver was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said he died of massive head and chest injuries after the impact of the crash threw him from the cab of the truck, driven by Phillip Larsen, 33, also of Huntington Beach. Larsen is a friend of the boy’s mother, police said.

The 10:40 a.m. accident, about a half-mile north of Golden West Street, set off a chain-reaction crash involving four vehicles on Pacific Coast Highway, already crowded with early beachgoers.

Larsen’s truck hit an automobile driven by John Brandt, 70, of Arlington, Mass., which in turn struck a pickup truck in front of it. Both vehicles then went off the highway onto a bike path below, the Brandt car striking a parked pickup truck on the way, police said.

Brandt and a passenger, Marcella Brandt, 71, were taken to Pacifica Hospital in Huntington Beach, where they were treated for minor bruises and released. Larsen, who suffered head injuries, was taken to Fountain Valley Community Hospital where he was listed in stable condition.

Huntington Beach police closed a section of Pacific Coast Highway for two hours because of the accident. Police said no one has yet been cited in the crash, but the investigation continues.