Crash Victim May Be Downey Resident
A man killed when his van crashed and burst into flames in Norwalk on Tuesday was tentatively identified as Chong Song Yi, 45, of Downey, authorities said Wednesday.
The body was burned beyond recognition and Los Angeles County coroner’s investigators will have to use dental records to positively identify him, California Highway Patrol spokesman Lyle Whitten said.
The victim was first thought to have been an Orange County resident when investigators traced the license plates on the van to a Santa Ana address. However, no one there knew the owner of a van, Whitten said.
After hearing news of the crash, Yi’s wife reported him missing Wednesday, Whitten said. The couple had lived at the Santa Ana address several months ago.
The accident occurred about 2:30 a.m. as the victim was heading south on the Santa Ana Freeway north of Rosecrans Avenue.
Two truck drivers attempted to rescue the driver, who was trying to escape by kicking at the windows of the van when they arrived. The truckers tried to break the windows and douse the flames with a fire extinguisher, but the fire was too intense, Whitten said.
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