3 Tarzana Children Seriously Hurt as Car Loses Brakes, Hits Stroller

Three Tarzana children, two of them in a double stroller, were seriously injured Sunday when a car lost its brakes on a freeway off-ramp, crossed an intersection and struck the children as their mother walked with them, authorities said.

The most severely injured child, a 3-year-old boy, was in a stroller that was yanked from the mother’s hands by the force of the collision and ended up beneath the car, Los Angeles Police Officer Clark Baker said. The boy was airlifted to UCLA Medical Center, where he was in intensive care, according to a hospital official. Baker said paramedics said the child suffered major head trauma, multiple broken bones and the loss of three or four toes.

The boy’s 1-year-old sister, who was in the double stroller with him, was taken to the Medical Center of Tarzana with a head laceration.

Their 4-year-old brother, who was also taken to the Tarzana hospital, suffered a broken leg and possible eye damage, Baker said.

The officer said the accident occurred about 4:45 p.m. on the southbound Reseda Boulevard off-ramp from the Ventura Freeway.

The brakes failed on a 1963 Mercury driven by Iris Warren, 43, Baker said, and the car hurtled through the intersection at about 40 m.p.h. and struck the children on the sidewalk. Warren was not cited in the crash, pending further investigation, Baker added.