Local News in Brief : 4 Killed, 5 Hurt in 3-Car Collision in Angeles Forest

Four people were killed and five others, including three children, were injured Sunday in a fiery three-car accident on a narrow two-lane highway near Acton.

The incident, which occurred shortly before 11:30 a.m. on Angeles Forest Highway about 1 1/2 miles south of Sierra Highway, touched off a minor brush fire. Both Angeles Forest and Sierra highways were closed for almost five hours while workers cleared the wreckage and firefighters extinguished the blaze, California Highway Patrol spokesman Scott McKnight said.

The victims died when a late model Pontiac Trans Am, traveling at a high rate of speed in the northbound lane, rounded a curve and drifted into the southbound lane, crashing head-on into a Nissan pickup truck, McKnight said. The truck, which was pushed backward and over an embankment, overturned and burst into flames, trapping one of the victims inside, the CHP spokesman said.

Meanwhile, McKnight said, the Pontiac continued northbound and apparently was partially airborne when it struck a second southbound car, an Oldsmobile Cutlass, and drove it backwards about 20 feet. Witnesses told CHP officers that the Pontiac sailed over the top of the second car, coming to rest about 120 feet north of the crash site.

Two men and two women, all occupants of the pickup and the Pontiac, were dead at the accident scene, McKnight said. Their identities had not been determined late Sunday.

The five occupants of the Oldsmobile, members of a Palmdale family, were taken to Palmdale Hospital Medical Center with minor to moderate injuries, McKnight said. They were identified as Zvonko Munjekovich, 32; his wife, Anna, 29; and their three children, Michael, 7; Michelle, 3, and Mellisa, 1 1/2. Investigators speculated that the family may have escaped more serious injuries because all were wearing seatbelts, McKnight said.

The CHP’s Southern Division Multi-Disciplined Accident Investigation Team (MAIT) is assisting the CHP Antelope Valley office with a follow-up investigation. McKnight said investigators have no reason to suspect anything but excessive speed caused the accident.