Wrong-Way Driver, 4 Others Die in Crash

In a fiery collision that might have involved drunk driving or suicide, a man who raced his car through red lights down the wrong side of a Long Beach street killed himself and four members of a family who drove toward him, police said Sunday.

Chanvatana Soth, 21, of Signal Hill was driving east in the westbound lanes of Spring Street about 9 p.m. Saturday as Long Beach police tried to signal him to move into the correct lane.

Ignoring police--who had to stop at each red light as they awaited permission to chase the car--Soth sped at up to at least 70 m.p.h. through three red lights until he smashed head-on into the oncoming car, instantly killing all four members of a Long Beach family who were in the compact car, police said. Soth also died instantly in the crash.

The four killed were sisters Doris, 15, Jalib, 14, and Dorine Helou, 18, and Hanan Helou, whose age was unavailable, according to a Los Angeles County coroner’s spokesman. One neighbor confirmed that Hanan was the teen-agers’ mother. The family’s father and brother were not in the car.

Police had seen Soth’s car several blocks away, but by the time officers got permission to chase the speeding car, it had already crashed into the Helous.

“We all feel bad,” Long Beach Police spokesman Bob Anderson said Sunday. “We (didn’t) want to (compound) the problem by driving crazy. When we get to a light we have to stop.”

Jeremy Mills, 17, who works near the intersection where the crash occurred, said: “I saw sparks and fire and glass shattering and parts flying.” The front of the Helou’s car was “completely gone,” he added.

He ran toward the burning cars with a fire extinguisher, which police took from him and began using after they “hustled me out of the way,” Mills said.

It took about four hours for police and firefighters to remove the bodies from the mangled cars.

The Helous have lived for several years in a one-story house on a quiet residential street about a quarter-mile from the collision, neighbors say. Their home was devoid of cars, lights or people early Sunday afternoon.

Neighbors across the street said the family is from Lebanon and owns a Long Beach restaurant.

An autopsy will determine whether Soth had been drinking, but the way he was driving also suggests suicide, police spokesman Anderson said. “The way he was driving was like, ‘I don’t give a damn.’ ”