10 Injured as Tustin Driver Suffers Seizure

A 50-year-old Tustin man who suffered an epileptic seizure while driving Friday crashed into two other cars and struck two pedestrians, injuring 10 people, three of them critically.

Hawthorne Police Officer Greg Chidley said Robert Heywood Jr., 50, was heading north on Prairie Avenue when he had the seizure and inadvertently stepped on the accelerator. Heywood’s car ran through a red light and struck one car with five people inside, then hit two people in a crosswalk and finally struck another car, Chidley said.

The accident occurred about 10 a.m. at the intersection of Prairie and Rosecrans avenues.

Paramedics airlifted Heywood to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance for treatment of critical internal injuries. His father, Robert Heywood Sr., 80, of Hawthorne, was in stable condition at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood with a head injury, Chidley said.

Five people in the second car were injured, including Myrna De Jean, 58, of Compton, who was in critical condition at Martin Luther King Jr.-Drew Medical Center with a fractured collarbone and a collapsed lung; and her husband, Harris De Jean, 60, who was in serious condition with back injuries at King-Drew center.

Three others in the second car were treated at other hospitals and released. A person in the other auto the Heywood car hit was treated at the crash scene and released, Chidley said.

The pedestrians injured were La Wanda Smith, 17, of Lawndale, who was being treated at Memorial Hospital of Gardena for two broken legs, and Odetta David, 20, of Los Angeles, who was in critical condition at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center with head injuries, Chidley said.