Crash Kills 3 Teens, Driver of Stolen Car

Three San Fernando Valley teen-agers returning from the beach and an unidentified man driving a stolen car were killed in a two-car accident on Kanan Road in Agoura Wednesday, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.

Erica Michelle Licht of Woodland Hills and Janine Sue Fastow of Van Nuys, both 15, were killed in the 1 p.m. accident, which occurred about a half-mile north of Troutdale Drive, CHP spokesman Ken Rosenberg said.

Also killed was the 18-year-old driver of the car in which the girls were passengers. The Van Nuys man’s name was being withheld until his family was notified.

Trying to Pass

The teen-agers died shortly after the crash, which occurred when the speeding driver of a stolen sports car swerved over a double-yellow dividing line and slid into their compact auto, Rosenberg said. The driver of the sports car, a man in his 40s or 50s who carried no identification, was trying to pass another vehicle, Rosenberg said.

The sports car had been reported stolen in West Los Angeles, Rosenberg said.

Witnesses told Highway Patrol investigators that the driver of the sports car was traveling south at about 70 m.p.h. when he approached a van. He steered into the northbound lane to pass the van, and into the path of the teen-agers’ northbound compact car. The driver apparently attempted to avoid hitting the compact car but skidded sideways into it, witnesses told the CHP.

Both cars were destroyed, and the teen-agers were removed by prying apart the car.

Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics worked on the victims, giving cardiopulmonary resuscitation to the sports car driver and the girls, Rosenberg said. The girls were then taken by Fire Department helicopter to Westlake Community Hospital, where they died shortly after arrival.

Died at Hospital

The sports car driver was dead on arrival at Humana Hospital West Hills in Canoga Park. The other driver was partly conscious at the scene, Rosenberg said, but died soon after arrival at West Hills.

Rosenberg said a substance thought to be a drug was found in the clothes of the sports-car driver. The coroner is testing to see if the man was intoxicated, Rosenberg said.