2 Women Die, 5 Injured in Accident

Two elderly women were killed Friday when their car ran a red light and was struck by an oncoming sport utility vehicle filled with teen-agers, police said.

It was the third fatal traffic accident in the past two years near the intersection of Shoup Avenue and Oxnard Street, according to residents.

Police said Josephine Burden, 70, of West Hills, was at the wheel of her car heading north on Shoup with Zenobia Matriscians, 82, when the light at Oxnard turned red.

The car ran the light and was hit in the side by the other vehicle, which was headed east on Oxnard, Los Angeles Police Detective Bill Osuna said. The two vehicles spun out of control.

The women were pronounced dead at the accident scene. The five teen-agers, ranging in age from 16 to 18, were taken to local hospitals, where they were treated for injuries ranging from broken collarbones to cuts from glass, Osuna said. Three in the back seat, who had not been wearing seat belts, were hurled from the vehicle, Officer Carl Helm said.

No charges will be filed, Helm said. The driver, Hayley Hood, 16, of Calabasas, “was going through the green, and the car just came through the red,” Helm said. “There was no chance to stop, to even put on the brake.”

Residents said the stretch of Shoup running from Ventura Boulevard past Oxnard is particularly treacherous. “It’s a bad street,” said Nicki Lang. “I’m afraid to go across it.”

“I’m always hearing sirens going down to an accident,” added her daughter, Danelle, who said a friend of hers was killed by a speeding car near the intersection last year.

An accident at the intersection also claimed the life of 13-year-old Matthew Fischer, who was hit by a 60-year-old Woodland Hills driver as he got off a school bus in 1993 in what prosecutors say was a hit-and-run. The driver, Joan Mills, is on trial for vehicular manslaughter in that case.

“Maybe it’s just a coincidence,” said Sgt. Rod Grabeck of the LAPD’s Valley Traffic Division. “We were discussing it this afternoon, why we were having so many problems on Shoup, and nothing was correlating.”

Osuna said there’s little that can be done to make the intersection safer, noting that it already has a traffic signal. “The only thing to do is maybe getting more traffic enforcement out there,” he said.