1 Killed, 11 Injured in Head-On Collision of Sports Car and Van

A woman was killed and 11 others 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 Friday evening, the California Highway Patrol said.

The injured were taken to hospitals in the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys and Los Angeles. Six of them 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., CHP Officer Carla Bittner said.

The sports car, a Corvette, burned after hitting the van, Bittner said, and the woman passenger in the Corvette died. Her body was badly burned.

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 County-USC Medical Center. A hospital spokeswoman, Adelaide de Lacerda, said a 30-year-old man--apparently the Corvette’s driver--suffered second-degree burns over 36% of his body, and a 6-year-old boy received 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 reported in critical condition at Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills.