Suicide Follows 3-Car Accident

A three-vehicle chain-reaction crash Sunday afternoon left a 9-month-old girl in critical condition and prompted the driver of the car that triggered the pileup to commit a roadside suicide, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said.

While deputies and paramedics were tending to those injured in the crash, the 27-year-old disabled Palmdale man who caused the accident pulled out a 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol and shot himself once in the right side of the head, deputies said.

After hearing the shot, deputies saw the man fall from his wheelchair. The man, whose name was withheld, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Sheriff’s investigators and witnesses said the man was distraught over the accident, which occurred about 2:15 p.m. at the intersection of 30th Street West and Avenue K.

The man, who was driving a red Pontiac Firebird north on 30th Street West, failed to stop for a red light, deputies said. He broadsided a BMW driven by Danny Lewis, 43, of Lancaster, who was heading east on Avenue K.

The impact was so severe, deputies said, that Lewis’ vehicle rolled over--hitting a 1986 Chevrolet Cavalier driven by Michael Mosback, 47, of Lancaster, who was heading west on Avenue K.

Neither Mosback nor the 27-year-old Palmdale man were hurt in the crash.

However, Lewis and three young girls in his car--the 9-month-old, a 21-month-old and a 3-year-old--were injured. Lewis was treated at Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center and released. No other information on the children was provided.

“Immediately after the accident itself, the person who shot himself was very, very despondent,” Mosback said. “He was saying, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, there’s children in there. I didn’t see the light. I didn’t see the light. Oh, my God.’ ”

The motorist rolled his wheelchair down to a bus stop about 20 or 30 feet from the crash site, halted, took out a gun and shot himself, witnesses said.

Two passengers in the suicide victim’s car were slightly hurt, deputies said. Both were treated at Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center and released, a nursing supervisor said. Their names were not released.