Victims’ Family Agonizes Over Cause of Fatal Crash : North Hills: Suspect in pursuit broadsided car, killing parents, just after police called off chase.

As Carlos and Yesenia Medina fought for their lives Saturday, one day after their parents were killed in a car crash caused by a suspected drunk driver fleeing police, grieving family and friends agonized over how much to blame authorities for the tragedy.

Mourners said the bulk of the responsibility for the crash injuring the children should be placed on the man who police said was speeding through North Hills early Friday in a stolen Ford Bronco.

Still, they wondered whether officers chasing the suspect waited too long to call off their pursuit.

Police were at least partly to blame because the driver probably would not have been speeding if the officers had not been close behind him, said Alejandro Nicolas Arteaga, the children’s grandfather.

“People died who didn’t have to die,” Arteaga said in Spanish.

Juan Ernesto Linares, a longtime family friend, said everyone who knew the Medinas well hopes to obtain more details about the accident before long.

“We like the police,” Linares said, adding that high-speed chases seem often to result in unexpected deaths. “I think they can try to use a different way to stop these people.”

In a separate car accident Friday night, a white Cadillac reported stolen from Van Nuys and pursued by police collided with another vehicle after running a red light at Winnetka Avenue and Vanowen Street.

Los Angeles Police Department officers had been following the car since spotting it at Wilbur Avenue and Victory Boulevard and had seen the driver commit several alleged traffic violations, Sgt. Bill Maarschalk said.

Only the driver of the suspected stolen car was injured, police said. A 16-year-old at the wheel of the Cadillac was admitted to West Hills Medical Center with a fractured pelvis and broken ribs. He was transferred Saturday to the medical ward at the Eastlake Juvenile Center, police said.

LAPD officials on Saturday declined to discuss the fatal accident involving the Medinas, saying detectives would resume their investigation Monday. They refused to comment on the police pursuit that preceded the accident and said they had still not identified the man arrested for slamming into the Medinas’ Nissan early Friday.

The suspect, believed to be about 28 years old, was expected to be held on suspicion of murder throughout the weekend, police said. He was driving a stolen Ford Bronco when he ran a red light and collided with the Medina family’s car at an estimated 70 m.p.h., police said. The accident occurred about 12:30 a.m. at Hayvenhurst Avenue and Parthenia Street in North Hills.

Officers who had initially tried to stop the driver after he made an illegal turn chased him about two miles at high speed before suspending their pursuit to avoid danger, officials said. Moments later, however, his vehicle broadsided the Medinas’ car and virtually crushed it.

Killed were Ernesto Antonio Medina, 32, and Ana Luz Medina, 28, of Van Nuys. Their children, Carlos, 11, and Yesenia, 7, were airlifted to Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles.

Kathy Stevenson, nursing supervisor at Childrens Hospital, said both children remained in critical condition Saturday after several hours of operations for multiple injuries.

Carlos had internal injuries and Yesenia suffered various broken bones, cuts and bruises in the accident, hospital officials said.

The driver of the Bronco was treated at Northridge Hospital Medical Center for minor injuries and released to police custody.

Officer Manuel Valladares, an LAPD spokesman, said the driver would probably remain unidentified at least until Monday, when detectives continue their investigation.

Valladares also said no further information was available.

“We don’t have anything to say about this,” he said.

The Medinas’ relatives and close friends held vigil at the hospital Saturday.

Arteaga said Carlos seemed to be in the most serious condition, while Yesenia showed signs of recovery. The children are expected to live with him and their grandmother, Ana Elsie Escobar, Arteaga said.

But Escobar, the mother of Ana Luz Medina, was struggling with the pain of the tragedy, he said.

“She’s not doing well,” Arteaga said. “Her nerves are bad.”

Times staff writer Ann W. O’Neill contributed to this report.