Security Gate Device Hurts Couple in Ice Cream Truck

Two people were injured--one seriously--when an ice cream truck was impaled by a high-tech security device that rams steel cylinders into vehicles entering a Santa Clarita housing tract without authorization, authorities said Wednesday.

Tuesday’s accident, in which the device slammed into a truck carrying a lost couple who could not read English warnings, brought to three the number of people it has hurt and about 30 the number of vehicles it has damaged.

The $50,000 security system, made in nearby Valencia, was designed to protect embassies and airport runways from terrorists and suicide bombers. Residents of Hidden Valley installed theirs in April to keep shortcutting commuters out of their neighborhood.

Nasser Soulati, 66, of Reseda was in serious condition Wednesday at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia with broken ribs and a bruised lung, a hospital spokeswoman said. Soulati was a passenger in an ice cream truck driven by his wife, Zahra Ghafiri, 61, who banged her head in the crash.

The security device has in the past infuriated visitors by inflicting thousands of dollars worth of damage on their cars.

Santa Clarita Assistant City Manager Ken Pulskamp said the city is trying to remedy the problem, but with little success so far. The city held a hearing on the issue in June. It drew about 40 people.

Jesse Hinojosa of Newhall said at the hearing that he suffered head cuts that required five stitches earlier this year when the cylinders transfixed his van, and he hit his head on the windshield. About 30 vehicles have been damaged, according to city officials, residents and those who spoke at the hearing.

Pulskamp was unaware of Tuesday’s accident and did not know how the city would respond.

“I just can’t believe people are still trying to beat it,” Pulskamp said.

Officers of the Hidden Valley Homeowners Assn. did not return phone calls.

“People have an arrogant attitude,” said Harry Dickinson, president of Delta Scientific Corp., the company that makes the device. “They think they can beat it, but they can’t. These were built for embassies and to stop suicide bombers.”

According to Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, Soulati and Ghafiri were lost and were trying to find their way back to the Golden State Freeway after visiting friends in Santa Clarita.

Deputy Clinton Bowers said the couple tried to follow a car through the security gate when the two hydraulically powered cylinders--three feet long and eight inches in diameter--shot from the ground. One impaled the truck’s oil pan and the impact knocked Soulati and Ghafiri out of their seats.

“Unfortunately, they did not know the area very well,” said the couple’s son, Parviz Solati. “They were trying to get to the freeway and they were following this car. So first, the car goes through the gate and my parents did not know this thing was coming up. It lifted the car right up.”

Hidden Valley residents enter by waving a computer-coded card in front of an electronic sensor, causing the road-blocking cylinders to subside flush with the ground. But instantly after the authorized vehicle passes through, the cylinders pop back into place to prevent other vehicles from following.

Road signs warn of the danger, but Solati said his parents, who immigrated from Iran six years ago, speak only limited English. International picture signs also caution motorists about the device’s effects.

“That thing could actually kill somebody just because they went in there accidentally,” Solati said. “I think I will talk to a lawyer.”