Driver Dies in 54-Foot Fall to Freeway

A 62-year-old Alhambra woman died instantly when she accidentally fell 54 feet from a freeway overpass onto the shoulder of the southbound Glendale Freeway, police said.

Lois Spector stopped her car on a banked, three-foot-wide shoulder on the transition road from the southbound Glendale Freeway to the eastbound Ventura Freeway. She apparently lost her footing and fell over a two-foot guard rail to her death, said Detective Greg Hall of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Spector’s death last week has been ruled an accident, Hall said. She was wearing heels three inches high and apparently stumbled on a storm drain that was partly filled with debris when she got out of the car, he said.

“It wouldn’t take too much wind to send her over,” Hall said.

Police are uncertain why Spector stopped her car on the steep overpass, but Hall said she may have accidentally released her hood latch while driving and stopped to secure it. The car had no apparent mechanical problems.