Man Killed on Freeway After Van Stalls

A Van Nuys man was killed Sunday on the Antelope Valley Freeway moments after he got out of his stalled van and tried to repair it amid traffic, authorities said.

The accident, in the northbound lanes about a mile south of San Fernando Road, backed up traffic for about two hours, said California Highway Patrol Officer Jim Kerr.

Juan Acosta, 31, was crushed to death about 12:40 p.m. between his 1971 rear-engine Volkswagen bus and a 1990 Mitsubishi pickup truck that slammed into it in the fifth lane of the six-lane freeway, Officer Joseph Johnson said.

Witnesses told the CHP that after the van’s engine began to smoke, Acosta, driving two lanes from the right shoulder, coasted about 100 feet before stopping, Kerr said.

“It looks like he had plenty of time to pull over to the shoulder, but failed to,” Kerr said.

Acosta opened his door, went to the back of the van and was trying to restart the engine when the truck crashed into the van at about 65 m.p.h., crushing Acosta and knocking his van about 40 feet, witnesses told CHP officers.

The driver, 17-year-old Timothy Strother of Newhall, told authorities he had been driving in the fifth lane when a car in front of him swerved suddenly to avoid the van, leaving him no time to change lanes, Kerr said.

Strother, who had been wearing his seat belt, was treated at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Valencia for a fractured left arm and was later released, authorities said. He was not cited, authorities said.