3 Die as Fleeing Car Plows Into Big Rig : Driver Had Sped Wrong Way Onto Freeway in Chase

A motorist who fled from police attempting to pull him over for speeding was killed Monday, along with his two passengers, when he drove the wrong way onto a freeway in Burbank and collided head-on with a big-rig truck, authorities said.

The three men died instantly in the 3:25 a.m. crash on the northbound Golden State Freeway near the Burbank Boulevard off-ramp, the California Highway Patrol said. Two of the victims were 21-year-old North Hollywood men, whose names were withheld pending notification of their families. The third victim was not identified.

Truck driver John Morris, 28, of Tyler, Tex., was not injured.

The collision closed northbound lanes of the freeway for nearly six hours, causing a morning rush-hour traffic jam, officials said.

Tests Incomplete

“The assumption on our part is that they had been drinking,” said Burbank Police Sgt. Don Goldberg, adding that results of toxicological tests were incomplete. “The off-ramp is pretty clearly marked, but if they were drinking and were not familiar with the area, the driver could have made a mistake.”

Goldberg said the incident began when two Burbank police officers tried to stop a 1974 Chevrolet Malibu they had seen enter the city at high speed on Victory Boulevard at Clybourn Avenue.

“They were speeding,” Goldberg said. “As they made the curve (on Victory Boulevard), they almost lost it. The officers went in pursuit, and the driver refused to stop. During the course of the pursuit, what appeared to be beer cans were being thrown out of the vehicle.”

The chase, at speeds up to 85 m.p.h., ran through several red lights east on Victory to Burbank Boulevard, police said.

CHP Officer Linda Curtis said the driver then took Burbank Boulevard over the freeway and entered the off-ramp of the northbound freeway lanes. Only a few seconds after entering the freeway, the Malibu and the oncoming 18-wheel truck, carrying a load of sand, collided in the slow lane, Curtis said.

The Burbank officers pursuing the car had stopped on the off-ramp shoulder because of the danger and were alerting the CHP when the accident occurred, authorities said.

“They weren’t chasing a murder suspect; it was simply a traffic violation,” Goldberg said of the officers. “They exercised good judgement in terminating the pursuit.”