In-Line Skater Hit by Car Dies of Injuries

A 20-year-old CSUN student has died of injuries he suffered while in-line skating last week, and police are still looking for the hit-and-run motorist believed to have hit him.

Charles “Chris” Mann had been in a coma since the Oct. 3 accident in West Hills.

He died Thursday at 6:30 p.m., according to administrators at Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

Mann was skating on Valley Circle Boulevard just south of Kittridge Street about 6:30 p.m. when an older-model blue Toyota Tercel apparently swung into the bicycle lane in an effort to pass traffic, police said. The car hit Mann, knocking him into the car’s windshield and shattering it.

As Mann lay on the ground, witnesses said, the male driver sped away.

Throughout the week Mann spent in a coma, his family kept vigil at the hospital. His 22-year-old brother, Scott, recalled the plans he had to study international law and travel back to Japan where he had spent a summer as an exchange student.

Police are looking for a blue Tercel with a smashed windshield.