Victim Identified in Mulholland Drive Off-Road Accident

Authorities identified David Israel as the 29-year-old man who died Wednesday night when a Jeep carrying four men overturned in an off-road accident near Mulholland Drive.

Police said all four men had been drinking before they took the Jeep Wrangler up a steep incline of a fire road near the 20100 block of Mulholland Drive. The Jeep, without its canvas top, missed a turn and rolled over, Police Detective Jim Mann said.

Driver Jason Jones, 26, of Valencia was wearing his seat belt and was not injured. Joshua Goldman, 24, Israel’s brother and the owner of the Jeep, was also wearing a seat belt as he rode in the front passenger seat. He was not injured, Mann said.

Israel was in the back seat next to Douglas Wilks, 24, of Canoga Park, who suffered scrapes and cuts to his head and face, Mann said.

Neither passenger in the back seat was wearing a safety belt, and both men jumped out of the Jeep as it began to roll. Wilks made it out of the Jeep’s path, but Israel’s head was pinned to the ground as the vehicle rolled over him, Mann said.

“The men admitted that they were drinking,” Mann said. “They were all very remorseful and upset. They were hugging each other and saying they were sorry.”

Goldman said Thursday that the four had just finished drinking three or four beers apiece at Israel’s Woodland Hills home when they went on the off-road ride, he said.

After the accident, Jones called 911 on his cellular phone and ran to Mulholland Drive to try to flag down a car, Goldman said.

“Doug and I started giving my brother CPR and got his pulse back, and then I was just holding him in my arms as he was dying,” Goldman said. “There was blood everywhere, and it seemed like forever until the paramedics came.”

Israel was declared dead an hour later at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, Mann said.