Four Die in Fiery Auto Crash; Suspected Drunk Driver Held

Four people, including a 5-year-old girl, were killed and two others were injured Saturday when a speeding car driven by a suspected drunk driver slammed into four other vehicles at a stoplight, causing one car to burst into flames, Los Angeles police said.

The driver of the speeding car, Phillip Carlos Jarmon, 28, of Covina, apparently failed to notice four cars stopped in front of him at the busy intersection of 190th Street and Normandie Avenue in the Harbor Gateway area, authorities said.

Jarmon’s car, traveling eastbound on 190th Street shortly after 5 p.m., sideswiped three vehicles stopped in a left lane, veered and struck a Toyota station wagon in the right lane, said Sgt. Dave Reynolds.

“The impact propelled (the station wagon) into the intersection,” said Reynolds. “It overturned and caught on fire.”

Three people inside were “burned beyond recognition,” Reynolds said. Investigators were trying to determine the identities of the victims, who were so badly burned that police could not tell whether they were men, women or children.

Somehow, police said, two other passengers in the wagon--both children--were either thrown out, pulled out or somehow escaped. One, a 5-year-old girl, was pronounced dead a short time later at Harbor General Hospital in Torrance. The other, a boy of about 10, was listed in serious condition late Saturday.

Jarmon was treated at the hospital for cuts on his face and right arm. He was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and vehicular manslaughter, Reynolds said. Police were unsure how fast his car was going.

“It’s probably one of the worst things I’ve ever seen,” said one observer, who described the burned car as “a pile of rubble. It was pretty awful out there.”

The wide, heavily traveled intersection--almost in the shadow of a billboard advertising beer--was almost completely blocked for several hours. Jarmon’s 1975 Chevrolet Malibu ended up on the far side of the intersection, facing northbound, while the wagon spun into a crosswalk, its tires melted from the heat of the fire.

According to witnesses at the accident scene, dozens of police officers and firefighters worked in the fading evening light to clear away debris and free the charred bodies trapped inside the station wagon. The car with the bodies still inside remained at the scene, surrounded by shattered glass and flares, for more than two hours while officers and a coroner’s deputy gathered evidence.