Man’s Death on Bus Bench Seen as a Freak Accident

Los Angeles police Monday were investigating the bizarre death of a man who apparently fell asleep on a bus-stop bench and rolled off, catching his head between the bench and the backrest and strangling himself.

The victim, Espiridion Ortega Lucas, 30, was found dead about 1 a.m. Sunday, police said.

The bus stop, at Sunset and Griffith Park boulevards, is about two blocks from Lucas’ apartment in the Silverlake-Echo Park area. He worked as a busboy at a restaurant in the area, Detective G. E. Randolph said.

Although investigators were still looking for witnesses and awaiting the completion of an autopsy, the case was being regarded as a freak accident.

“There was absolutely no sign of foul play of any kind,” Randolph said.

Lucas, described as a friendly, hard worker at the Sunset Boulevard restaurant where he was employed, had finished work Saturday night and apparently spent some time drinking beer with friends on a strip of grass that runs near the bus stop, Randolph said.

Police theorize that the slightly built, 5-foot-tall Lucas fell asleep on the bench and rolled off, catching his neck on the angle iron that holds the backrest to the bench. Several beer bottles were found nearby, Randolph said.

“His body hit the ground (but) his head could not fall because the angle iron . . . hit him right in the neck,” the detective said. “It’s possible there were other people there” at the time of death.

The manager of the restaurant described Lucas as a part-time employee who was particularly hard-working and popular.

“He was a very friendly person, very outgoing--just wonderful,” said the manager, who asked that her name not be used. “He was very conscientious, a very hard worker. He’d come in on his day off to see if he could help us out. Just a fine, fine young man.”

Lucas, who liked to be called by his last name, had worked at another Los Angeles restaurant for nearly 10 years until it closed recently, the manager said. He was a legal immigrant who had expressed fears about the Oct. 1 earthquake and had talked of having a wife and family in Mexico, she said.

Police said Lucas apparently was separated from his wife and a young child and was living alone. An older brother and younger sister also live in Los Angeles, Randolph said.

On one day during the recent heat wave, Lucas stayed after his shift ended and helped other employees, rather than return to his hot apartment by himself, the manager said.

“I said, ‘You’re all through’ ” for the day, she recalled. “But he said, ‘I know. I like it here.’ ”