Surviving Officer Figures He Was Spared for a Purpose

It was the deadliest traffic accident ever for the Los Angeles Police Department.

A year ago today, two patrol cars hurrying to assist detectives in a predawn arrest on Skid Row collided at 5th and Wall streets--apparently, in large part, because one of the cars was headed the wrong way on a one-way street.

One car slammed into a light pole, the other careened into a ditch. Three officers died.

A fourth officer--Venson Drake, a rookie who had graduated from the Police Academy only three days earlier--survived. He was the only one wearing a seat belt.

News accounts at the time reported that Drake escaped with “only cuts and bruises.”

But as Drake said last week, “it turned out to be more than that.”

The morning after his release from County-USC Medical Center, where he was held overnight for treatment, Drake’s neck began to bother him. Subsequent examination revealed that he had broken and displaced two of his vertebrae, narrowly escaping permanent paralysis.

Operations followed, along with traction and four months in a “halo” brace, in which screws were driven into his skull to fasten his head firmly to a circular metal frame.

“It’s like your head’s on a (football) kicking tee,” he said with a faint smile.

But Drake said he was determined to make it back, explaining that police work is what he had “always wanted to do.”

He said officers from Central Division--most of whom had known him for only the two days he was on duty before the accident--visited him frequently, even chipping in to buy him an exercise bike for use in his recovery. Another regular visitor was Officer Sandy Kimber, one of his drill instructors at the Police Academy.

“They were all very supportive,” Drake said.

It took him almost 10 months, but Drake, now 29, finally received medical approval to return to duty. He’s working now at the complaint desk at the Central Division station, about a block from the accident scene.

“I’m now about 90% to 95% (recovered),” he said. “I should be able to return to full (patrol) duty in about two more months.”

Drake said he doesn’t mind talking about the accident, but, frankly, he can’t remember much about it.

“We had a backup call,” he said. “I figured we’d be pushing it, so I put on my seat belt. . . . I remember that the light was green, and we were going about 35 . . . .

Investigators said Drake and his partner, David Lee Hofmeyer, 25, were headed north on Wall Street with Hofmeyer at the wheel. The investigators said the other car was being driven east on 5th Street--the wrong way, in violation of departmental policy--by Officer Manuel Gutierrez Jr., 26. Gutierrez’s partner, Derrick C. Connor, 28, was riding next to him.

The cars collided in the middle of the intersection.

“The next thing I remember was that I was in the ditch, with the car on its side,” Drake said. “It was totally black, and I was trying to get out.”

Connor and Hofmeyer died at the scene. Drake and Gutierrez were rushed to County-USC, where Gutierrez died about an hour later.

Later that day, prompted by the deaths of three men who were not wearing seat belts and the survival of the one who was, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates issued an order reiterating that all members of the force wear the belts while on duty in police cars.

“I figure I was spared for a purpose,” Drake said. “If the Man Above didn’t want me to do this work, I wouldn’t be here.

“It’s good to be back.”