Local News in Brief : 1 Dead, 11 Hurt as Car, Van Crash; Condition of 5 Critical

A woman was killed and 11 people were injured, five critically, when a sports car trying to pass another car slammed head-on into a van loaded with passengers in a remote area of the Santa Clarita Valley on Friday evening, the California Highway Patrol said.

The injured were taken to hospitals in the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys, and to ones in other parts of Los Angeles. Six of the victims were children who were passengers in the van.

The accident occurred in the 35100 block of San Francisquito Road in the Bouquet Canyon area shortly before 6 p.m., said CHP Officer Carla Bittner.

The sports car caught fire after hitting the van, Bittner said, and a badly burned passenger in the car died.

No identities were available late Friday as hospitals attempted to locate relatives of the injured.

Two of the injured were airlifted by a Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter to USC-County Medical Center. A hospital spokeswoman, Adelaide de Lacerda, said a 30-year-old man, apparently the driver of the sports car, suffered second-degree burns over 36% of his body, and a 6-year-old boy had head injuries. Both were listed in critical condition.

A 28-year-old woman was in critical condition at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, where six of the accident victims were taken, a hospital spokeswoman said. A man and a woman, whose ages were unknown, were in critical condition at Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills.