Boy Killed When Car Is Rammed by Tow Truck : Tragedy: An unlicensed driver slams into the auto while allegedly racing a competitor to a job.

An unlicensed tow truck driver who was allegedly racing a competitor to a towing job plowed into a stopped car at a Southwest Los Angeles intersection, killing a 13-year-old boy and injuring three others, police said Monday.

Investigators said the crash Sunday is a tragic example of what can happen when so-called “bandit” tow truck operators monitor police scanners and speed to accident scenes before authorized help arrives.

Heriberto Contreras, who has 33 traffic violations in the past three years, was booked for investigation of murder on Sunday. The 21-year-old Los Angeles man was held without bail.

The suspect allegedly had been racing with another tow truck driver from a competing company to pick up a disabled car a few blocks from where the collision occurred at Denker Avenue and 54th Street.

Officers said they suspect that Contreras lost control of his truck and, at a speed estimated by detectives as 60 to 80 m.p.h. in the 25 m.p.h. zone, slammed into a 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass stopped at a red light.

The other tow truck driver, who witnesses said had been speeding down the left-hand lane against oncoming traffic, managed to swerve at the intersection and flee.

The truck driven by Contreras rammed into the rear of the Oldsmobile, crushing to death Jerry Williams, a seventh-grader who was in the back seat.

His sister, 9-year-old La Lisa Steward, who was in the front seat, was hospitalized in fair condition with facial cuts.

The driver of the car, 71-year-old Nadine Lashley, a neighbor who was taking the two children home from Greater Mt. Olive Church of God in Christ, where her husband is pastor, was also in fair condition with facial injuries.

Contreras suffered minor injuries. Also slightly injured was Maurice Bryant, 64, the driver of a 1977 Ford Thunderbird that was struck by the Oldsmobile while stopped at the light.

“I just never thought my boy would die before me,” said Jerry’s mother, 31-year-old Phyllis Steward, in a tearful interview Monday. “I asked if the paramedics couldn’t do nothing to save my baby--he didn’t do nothing to nobody--but they said he was dead at the scene.”

Jerry, who was the oldest of Steward’s five children, left behind a collection of sports trophies that rest on a shelf in the family’s modest wood-frame bungalow just five blocks from where he died.

One of them is a golden football statuette that notes his achievement as a running back in the 1990-91 Southwest Police Booster Community Youth League; another shows that his team in a summer basketball league won the 1989 championship.

In his tiny room, a shiny red 10-speed bicycle, which he was given for his 13th birthday on Jan. 31, leans against a wall. There is also a stack of Valentine’s Day cards that he had addressed but not yet delivered.

“He even got a gift for his little girlfriend,” said his mother. “But I don’t even know who she is to give it to her.”

Since mid-1988, the suspect Contreras has been cited on 13 occasions for a total of 33 separate infractions, including reckless driving, speeding, running stop signs, unsafe lane changes and tailgating, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles. On Jan. 17, his driver’s license was suspended for six months.

“This is a perfect example of what happens with all these bandit tow trucks racing to accidents,” said Los Angeles Detective Bill Whittaker, head of South Bureau traffic investigation. “If we can show a conscious disregard for the safety of others through gross negligence and outrageous driving, there’s a possibility we can get a filing for murder.”

Lettering on the truck Contreras was driving identifies his company as Harbor Towing on Del Amo Boulevard in Torrance. But no such firm is listed in South Bay telephone books, and the city clerk’s office said there is no record of the company being licensed to do business in Torrance.

A call to the telephone number stenciled on the truck rings at the Collision Car Center, a body shop at 1858 W. Del Amo Blvd., but the owner said he is not affiliated with Harbor Towing.

“Sometimes they bring me cars and I pay them money,” said Val Feldmuf, president of the firm. “But who they are . . . and what they do when they’re not here . . . I don’t know.”

Police said Harbor is typical of the dozens of tow companies, sometimes known as “bird-doggers,” that operate illegally around the Los Angeles area.

Usually, the drivers listen for broadcasts of accidents on a police scanner, then rush to the scene before one of the 16 licensed companies--known as “OPGs,” for official police garage--can arrive.

Often, the bandit tow truck drivers have ties to body shops, doctors and lawyers who pay them cash under the table in exchange for any business steered their way, police said. Sometimes, the drivers even encourage the victims to file false claims as part of elaborate insurance fraud scams, according to investigators.

“You see what you think is a little innocuous tow truck driving down the street . . . but you wouldn’t believe the amazing web behind it all,” said Lt. Stella Mattson, commanding officer of the investigation division of the Los Angeles Police Commission, which regulates the city’s tow industry.

But since most of the tow companies operate just outside of the city limits, the commission is virtually powerless to impose any disciplinary action, Mattson said. She added that police are considering a plan to broadcast accident calls via computer, rather than across airwaves.

In the meantime, officers occasionally stage fake accidents--hauling out an old junker and scattering debris in the street--to lure bandit trucks to the scene. Once there, they can be ticketed for having an audible scanner in the cab and for any other vehicle code violations.

“We put out the phony call and in a matter of what seems like seconds you can see them approaching at something like 90 m.p.h. down residential streets,” Mattson said. “God forbid anybody gets in their way.”