LOS ANGELES : 3 Killed, Several Injured in 2 Holiday Accidents

Three men were killed and several people were injured in two accidents apparently involving drunk drivers Thursday night and early Friday. Two drivers were in custody, police said.

About 2:45 a.m. Friday, a collision between two cars on Sunset Boulevard at McCadden Place in Hollywood left one driver dead, the other driver in custody suspected of drunk driving and a passenger in the suspect’s car critically injured.

Sergio Marcial, 23, was booked for “vehicular manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol,” said Los Angeles Police Officer P. Bartlett of the West Traffic Division. Marcial suffered a minor injury.

The other driver, a 22-year-old man, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center three hours after the crash, Bartlett said. His name was being withheld pending notification of relatives.

A passenger in Marcial’s car was in critical condition at the same hospital, being treated for “massive head and body trauma,” Bartlett said. The name of the man was not released. Marcial and the fatally injured driver apparently had been involved in a traffic dispute, Bartlett said.

Shortly after 11 p.m. Thursday, two cars crashed head-on on Sunset Boulevard near Edgecliffe Drive in Silver Lake when one car crossed the center line.

A car carrying three people, heading east on Sunset with its headlights off, crossed onto the wrong side of the street and hit a westbound car occupied by two people, police said.

A passenger in the second car, Jack Zinder, 33, of Los Angeles died at the scene. An unidentified 24-year-old man riding in the first car died at a hospital, police said. Zinder was a music critic for the L.A. Weekly newspaper.

The others, including both drivers, were critically injured. The driver of the first car faces a possible drunk driving charge, police said. His name has not been released.