Police Seek to Reconstruct Last Hours of Toran’s Life

The Los Angeles Police Department is attempting to reconstruct details of the traffic accident that killed Stacey Toran to determine how fast the Raider safety was driving when his car crashed a half-block from his Marina del Rey apartment last Saturday night.

The officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Robert Smith of West Traffic Division, said Friday he wants to determine why Toran’s car overturned so many times after jumping a curb.

Witnesses estimated that Toran, 27, was driving between 45 and 50 m.p.h. when his car hit a curb on Glencoe Avenue shortly before midnight, rolled over several times and smashed into a tree. Toran was killed when he was thrown from the car and his head struck the pavement. He was not wearing a seat belt.

An autopsy report released Thursday showed Toran’s blood-alcohol level was .32%., more than three times the legal limit. A published report Friday said that Toran had been eating and drinking at a restaurant with friends the night of the accident.

According to the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Toran had been at T.G.I. Friday’s, a popular Marina del Rey gathering place. Greg Urich, the restaurant’s day manager, was quoted as saying a bartender on duty that night vaguely remembered seeing Toran and a few friends at the bar.

The restaurant’s general manager, however, would not confirm that Toran had even been in the club. “We are not verifying that he was here,” Jim Caton said Friday.

Smith said he had determined that Toran had had dinner with friends Saturday night, adding that he plans to interview them next week, after they return from funeral services that were held Friday in Indianapolis.

Smith noted that Toran was driving a BMW 735i, a heavy car with a wide wheel base, which under normal circumstances would have little trouble with the gentle curve. In addition, Smith said, a check showed that the luxury auto was “pretty clean” as far as defects were concerned.

“We’re having reconstruction experts go out and try and determine the speed,” he said.

The detective said investigators also plan to follow up on a report that Toran was driving near a motorcycle when his car failed to negotiate a curve.

Hector Padilla, 18, a Venice area resident, said he and three friends were in Glen-Alla Park Saturday night when he saw the motorcycle and then Toran’s BMW round a curve on Glencoe. He estimated they were only a car-length apart.

“It was hard to tell if they were racing,” Padilla said Friday. “Or, whether they were playing around. . . . It might be too much of a coincidence for them going that fast and that close together.”

Padilla said his first impression was that neither the motorcycle nor the car was going to negotiate the curve, which he estimated should be driven safely at no more than 25 m.p.h. The posted speed limit in the area is 35 m.p.h.

Padilla said the motorcyclist held the curve, and Toran didn’t.

“He (Toran) just didn’t make the curve,” Padilla said. “It seemed like he went straight toward the park.”

Padilla said that when they saw Toran’s car overturning, he and his friends ran. “We looked back, and we saw him (Toran) in the air,” Padilla said. The motorcyclist didn’t stop.

Police are left to determine Toran’s movements from late Saturday afternoon until the time, police assume, that he apparently left the restaurant, which is about a half-mile from his apartment.

Toran had participated in the Raiders’ Family Day in Oxnard earlier in the day. He is believed to have left Oxnard about 4:30 or 5:30 in the afternoon. The accident occurred at 11:30 p.m.

According to his Raider teammates, Toran was not known to be a heavy drinker. A check of Department of Motor Vehicles records revealed no violations of any kind on Toran’s record.

Meanwhile, Toran was eulogized at a funeral in Indianapolis, attended by family members and about 300 others.

Raider assistant coach Willie Brown was among those who spoke at the service.

“We knew, his teammates knew--we all knew--he was All-Pro,” Brown said. “This is the toughest thing in the world for me to do, to talk about someone so kind.”

Fellow Raiders Greg Bell and Greg Townsend served as pallbearers.

The services were held in the gymnasium at Broad Ripple High School, where Toran was a basketball and football star. Toran’s mother, Christine, sobbed throughout the 1 1/2-hour service, during which representatives of Gov. Evan Bayh and Indianapolis Mayor William Hudnut offered condolences.

Toran, a native of Indianapolis, played wide receiver and defensive back on Broad Ripple’s football team. As a senior during the 1979-1980 school year, he was captain of the school’s basketball and football teams.

Toran went on to play cornerback at Notre Dame, where he was defensive co-captain in his senior year.

The Raiders drafted Toran in the sixth round in 1984.