Hit and Run Kills Youth Selling Roses : Accidents: Passing motorcycle officers chase the car after seeing a second crash. Two men are charged because it isn't clear which one was the driver.

Hit and Run Kills Youth Selling Roses : Accidents: Passing motorcycle officers chase the car after seeing a second crash. Two men are charged because it isn’t clear which one was the driver.

By AARON CURTISS

Oct. 31, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

A teen-ager selling flowers at a North Hollywood intersection died Monday after he was struck by a hit-and-run driver whose car also was involved in three collisions with other vehicles, Los Angeles police said.

The 17-year-old North Hollywood youth, whose name was not released pending notification of relatives, was standing on the center divider at Sherman Way and Laurel Canyon Boulevard selling roses about 6 p.m. when he was struck by a car driven by Martin Hernandez Torres, 23, Officer Dennis Smith said.

Smith said Torres was driving north on Laurel Canyon and attempted to turn left against a red light on Sherman Way. As he did, his car hit the rear of a vehicle headed south on Laurel Canyon. The impact sent Torres’ car over the center divider on Sherman Way, where it ran over the youth.

Witnesses told police that Torres backed over the youth as he fled west on Sherman Way. The boy was taken to AMI Medical Center of North Hollywood, where he died a short time later.

Smith said Torres collided with two other vehicles as he attempted to turn south on Whitsett Avenue.

Torres was chased from the scene of the second collision by two motorcycle officers who saw the accidents. In the 6800 block of Whitsett, Torres and a passenger got out of the car and ran, but officers found them hiding nearby behind a bush.

Although police believe Torres was the driver, both men were arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter because of conflicting statements by witnesses. Torres also faces three counts of felony hit-and-run, driving without a license and driving without insurance. Both were being held in lieu of $5,000 bail.

Smith said investigators believe Torres was intoxicated at the time of the accidents.

Torres’ passenger, Alejandro Torres, 33, was treated for minor injuries at the jail ward at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.