Elderly Woman Killed, Husband Injured by Car

An elderly woman was killed and her husband was critically injured Sunday evening when a woman who told the police she was on her way to church struck them as they crossed a street near Balboa Park.

The wife was died at the scene. Her husband was taken to Mercy Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition with extensive bleeding and neurological damage.

Authorities had difficulty identifying the couple because they were carrying incomplete identification. However, Norman Greene, a hospital spokesman, identified the man as H. Zartman and the woman as Maria Zartman.

Greene said Mr. Zartman was between 70 and 80 years old.

According to police, the accident occurred at about 6:30 p.m. as the couple was crossing 6th Avenue. The police said the driver told them she had left Interstate 5 and had stopped at a red light where Elm Street meets 6th.

The driver told the police she turned right onto 6th Avenue and did not see the couple because she was partially blinded by the setting sun. The police said the car crushed the elderly woman and glanced off her husband.

The police declined Sunday evening to identify the driver, saying only that she was in her 50s or 60s. They said the accident was under investigation.