Hit-Run Accident Injures 12; Drunk Driver Incident Hurts 7

Twelve people, eight of them children, were injured when a hit-and-run driver roared through a red light in downtown Los Angeles on Christmas Eve and broadsided a van.

In another incident, seven people were injured, one critically, in Arleta in an accident blamed on a drunk driver, police reported.

All of the people injured in the downtown accident were riding in the van “which rolled over once and then came to rest upright against a building,” said Police Sgt. Richard Greenwood.

“At least the majority of the people in the van and maybe all (of them) were not wearing seat belts, nor were they in safety seats,” Traffic Officer Blair McCormack said.

No one was critically injured, police said.

Greenwood said the hit-and-run vehicle was described only as red with extensive front-end damage. The car was traveling west on 7th Street, the van north on Los Angeles Street.

Eight of the injured were taken to California and White Memorial hospitals and the other four were treated at the scene, said Bob Collis, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman.

“I saw a little boy come flying out of a rear window,” said witness Charlotte Lewis. “When you see people hurt that badly on Christmas Eve, it just does something to you.”

In the Arleta accident, a drunk driver made a left turn in front of another car in the 8700 block of Woodman Avenue, said Police Sgt. Ben Lee.

Two passengers in that driver’s car and the four people in the other auto were injured, Lee said. One of the injured suffered a fractured skull but the others were believed to have received minor injuries.

The accident occurred at 7:13 p.m., Collis said. The injured were taken to Holy Cross, Pacifica of the Valley and Valley hospitals, he said.