5 Die When Car Crashes Onto Freeway

Five people were killed Saturday afternoon when a driver lost control of his Pontiac Firebird and it became airborne, landing on a westbound car on the Pomona Freeway in the City of Industry.

The driver was traveling east on Gale Avenue, parallel to the freeway, when he went up the embankment, through a fence and onto the freeway, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Richard Dinsmoor.

“Witnesses estimate that the Firebird was going between 80 and 100 m.p.h.,” Dinsmoor said. “Apparently the driver was going too fast for a curve. . . . When it came down on the freeway it smashed into a blue Toyota station wagon.”

Both drivers and two passengers in the Toyota died at the scene. A single passenger in the Firebird died later at a hospital. A third passenger in the Toyota was in critical condition, Dinsmoor said.

The names of the victims were withheld pending notification of relatives.

Earlier in the day, a man suspected of drunk driving died after crashing into a van carrying nine passengers, less than two miles from the site where eight people were killed in a similar accident a week ago.

Anthony Thedford, 32, of Riverside was driving the wrong way on the westbound San Bernardino Freeway and slammed head-on into the new van about 12:45 a.m., injuring nine people, said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Rich Carroll.

Two passengers, Ester Fisher, 67, and Dennis Powers, 35, both of Norwalk, were taken to Desert Hospital. Powers underwent surgery for a fractured heel and Fisher was released after being treated for minor injuries. The other seven passengers also suffered minor injuries.

Investigators reported that they smelled alcohol in the wreckage of Thedford’s car. Riverside County coroner’s deputies found no open containers inside the vehicle, a coroner’s spokeswoman said.

Just 1 1/2 miles away, two adults and six children died last Sunday in a fiery crash when Teodolo Gallardo Bermudes, 35, of Palm Springs allegedly smashed his pickup truck into a sedan that was carrying 11 people.