Accident Kills 7 Passengers in Bed of Pickup

Seven young passengers in the bed of a pickup were killed early Friday when an alleged drunk driver lost control of his car in Commerce and struck the truck, sending it plunging off an elevated freeway into a railroad yard below.

The driver of the car, Sarkis Vartan Peltekian, 31, of Glendale, was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter after the 12:41 a.m. crash on the Long Beach Freeway, the California Highway Patrol said.

The victims in the pickup, six males and a female ranging in age from 14 to 20, were returning to their San Gabriel Valley homes from an outing to “kick back” at the beach, friends said. All were pronounced dead at the scene after they were thrown from the open back of the truck as it hopped the freeway’s concrete barrier and fell 40 feet, bouncing off a construction crane before coming to rest in a Union Pacific yard.

The only survivors in the pickup were the driver and a 16-year-old girl seated beside him, both of whom were wearing seat belts. “That most definitely saved their lives,” CHP spokesman Glen Dominguez said.

A bill pending in the state Legislature would make it illegal to ride on a highway in the back of a pickup, a practice that has been linked to dozens of fatal crashes in the state every year. Friday’s crash was the second to claim the lives of teen-agers in the Southland in two weeks.

A similar measure was vetoed by Gov. Pete Wilson in 1991, the same year a pickup accident claimed the lives of eight Contra Costa County youths.

The two survivors from the pickup struck Friday were listed in fair condition at County-USC Medical Center. Peltekian, meanwhile, was reported in stable condition with unspecified injuries at the hospital’s jail ward, where he was being held on $20,000 bail pending arraignment next week, Sheriff’s Department officials said.

Friends and relatives gathered throughout the day at the county coroner’s office to identify the dead and demand punishment for the accused drunk driver.

“He killed seven innocent lives, all because of his stupidity,” said Martha Lopez of La Puente, mourning her 14-year-old son, Gerardo. “I want him in jail.”

A sobbing Patricia Lozoya, 16, said one victim was her cousin and another--Victor Carsi, 18, of Baldwin Park--her fiance and father of her 4-month-old daughter. “And he died. He died. I can’t believe it,” she said. “ . . . We were going to get married as soon as we got the money.”

Her cousin was identified as Albert Castanon, 14, of La Puente. Reyes David Frausto, 19, of La Puente; Jesus Chinkosky, 20, of San Gabriel were also killed. The identities of two others were withheld pending notification of their families.

Relatives said the youths had grown up or gone to school together.

According to the CHP, the accident occurred when Peltekian’s Camaro was headed north on the Long Beach Freeway, Interstate 710, “at a high rate of speed” when he lost control and struck the center divider north of Washington Boulevard. “That impact caused him to veer across the right-hand lanes . . . where he struck the 1988 Mitsubishi pickup on the driver’s door,” Dominguez said.

The driver of the truck, Pedro Hidalgo Jr., 20, then lost control of the vehicle and it veered toward the four-foot-high concrete barrier guarding the right edge of the elevated freeway, the CHP said.

The fatal accident was witnessed by the night foreman at the rail yard below. Rick Gonzales said he happened to be walking from his office when he saw the pickup scraping along the barrier.

“I heard a thump. All of a sudden the truck started rising and sparking, just like the Fourth of July,” Gonzales said, still shaken.

“I thought it was going to stay down (on the freeway), but it came over into the yard. As it came over the railing, bodies started coming out. We heard screams.”

The truck struck the crane, which was on a rail car, then landed right-side up on the ground beside the tracks. “There were bodies all over the place in different positions. Some were on the crane. Some were around it,” Gonzales said.

“It’s hard to explain my feelings,” he added.

Hours later, the crane, nearby rocks and the gravel bed of the rail yard remained bloodstained and littered with broken glass.

While the passengers in the truck bed apparently died instantly, witnesses said Hidalgo climbed down from the driver’s seat and stumbled about until rail workers rushed over to help him.

It is legal to ride in the back of a pickup or flatbed truck in California, though children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult.

In 1991, a bill sponsored by Assemblyman Curtis R. Tucker Jr. (D-Inglewood), which would have banned all such travel on state highways, passed both houses of the Legislature but was vetoed by Wilson. The governor said such restrictions “would have a serious and negative impact on those families which depend on the use of a pickup truck for either work or basic transportation.”

Agricultural interests also complained that the measure would ban a common form of transporting fieldworkers.

A modified bill, reintroduced by Tucker, makes clear that it would not affect current laws governing the transportation of workers. It has passed the Assembly and faces a hearing before the Senate Transportation Committee on Tuesday.

“Whenever something like this happens there has to be a second look at the issues,” said CHP Sgt. Skip Carter, the patrol’s legislative analyst in Sacramento, who has pushed the measure. “You tether dogs in the back of a truck, but people are still (allowed unprotected) back there.”

According to the CHP, 1,859 people were injured in California and 48 killed during 1991 while riding in the back of trucks or vans. Such accidents in 1992 caused 37 fatalities and 1,655 injuries.

A pickup carrying teen-agers returning from a graduation ceremony crashed in Oxnard on June 20, killing two of them.

“Anyone with any common sense knows you ride back there (and) an accident happens, you don’t stand a chance,” said Tracey St. Julien, chief of staff for Tucker.

A spokesman said Gov. Wilson did not yet have a position on the new bill.

Freeway Tragedy

Seven people were killed and three others injured early Friday morning when a car driven by a suspected drunk driver struck a pickup truck carrying nine people, sending the truck over the side of the freeway.

How it happened

1. Both vehicles are traveling northbound on the Long Beach Freeway north of Washington Boulevard.

2. Camaro car hits center divider, veers across three lanes to strike the truck on the driver side door

3. Truck veers to right and goes over a four-foot concrete wall, plummets onto a crane in railroad yard, then bounces off and tumbles to the ground, 40 feet below the freeway. All seven people riding in the truckbed are killed.

Source: California Highway Patrol