Unknown Object Smashes Windshield, Killing Driver

In an incident that baffled authorities Tuesday, a 35-year-old motorist was killed on the Harbor Freeway when an unknown object crashed through the windshield of his van and struck him in the forehead.

Paramedics pronounced the driver dead at the scene, on the freeway just south of Adams Boulevard, where his vehicle came to rest against the center divider in the southbound lanes.

Los Angeles police theorized that whatever smashed through the van window--perhaps a brick, a rock or a piece of metal--was either hurled from an overpass or kicked up from another vehicle on the freeway.

But without witnesses, and without the object, they had no way of knowing whether to treat the death as an accident or a homicide.

“All we know right now is that some object came through the windshield, struck him and killed him,” said Detective Bruce Hagerty as homicide investigators took photographs and gathered evidence. “At this point it’s a big unknown.”

A coroner’s investigator said the victim, a Los Angeles resident, died instantly of “traumatic injury to the head.” His name was withheld pending notification of relatives.

California Highway Patrol officers said they found glass on the freeway just under the 23rd Street overpass, which raised the possibility that whatever happened occurred at that point, about 200 yards north of where the van came to rest.

In addition to a large hole in the windshield just above the steering wheel, the rear window of the van was shattered, causing police to speculate that whatever hit the man may have flown out the back.

Investigators did find a brick, a heavy metal disk and what appeared to be two pieces of pipe along the freeway near the scene. But, Hagerty said, there was no evidence to link those items with the death.

He said it may take an autopsy to determine what actually hit the man.

The accident backed traffic up for miles all afternoon on the southbound side of the freeway. The CHP closed down the two inside lanes at 1:30 p.m. and they were not reopened until 7:15 p.m.

Traffic was also slow on the northbound side, as gawkers slowed to get a glimpse of the accident.

And above the freeway, pedestrian onlookers gathered on nearby Figueroa Street, where they stared down at the officers through a chain-link fence.

If the man was killed by an object thrown from a freeway overpass, CHP officers said, it would be a rarity. Although the agency gets reports of people throwing things off freeway overpasses several times a week, injuries are infrequent.

“It does happen,” said CHP Officer Jill Angel. “But someone getting killed as a result, that doesn’t happen very often.”