Vehicle Hits Bus Shelter, Killing 1

The famed Hollywood intersection of Sunset and Vine looked like a battlefield Friday after a sports utility vehicle apparently went out of control, hit two vehicles, bowled over two mailboxes and then crashed into a bus shelter, killing one person and sending four others to the hospital.

Witnesses said numerous people tried to scramble out of the way of the late-model Jeep Cherokee, but some didn’t make it.

“I heard people scream, ‘Look out! Look out!’ ” said Alicia Montes of Echo Park. “When the people waiting for the bus got hit, it was terrible.”

Ian Allen Yurko, 22, of Reseda, who was waiting at the bus stop, was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. The injured were taken to area hospitals, including a 30-year-old woman who was in critical condition with leg injuries at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Los Angeles police investigators were looking into what caused the Jeep to go out of control at the busy intersection, but they had few answers Friday.

LAPD Sgt. Willie Guerrero said the owner of the vehicle, who was not immediately identified, parked in the red zone in front of a Wells Fargo Bank branch on Sunset Boulevard about 11 a.m. and got out to use an automated teller machine. While he was at the machine, a passenger in the vehicle got behind the wheel and the vehicle lurched into oncoming traffic, Guerrero said.

Moving east on Sunset, the Jeep hit a brown pickup truck and a second vehicle before careening for 100 yards across Vine Street and toppling the mailboxes, police said.

The Jeep then crashed into the bus shelter, where a small crowd was waiting for an MTA bus. A glass wall around an outdoor coffee bar in front of the Sunset-Vine Tower, at the southeast corner of the intersection, was shattered, showering glass onto people nearby.

Guerrero said it was unclear if the Jeep had mechanical problems or if the passenger who got behind the wheel could not control the vehicle once it started to move.

“Right now, we’re treating this as a very tragic accident,” he said.

The man who ended up behind the wheel of the Jeep suffered minor injuries and was taken to UCLA Medical Center, authorities said.

Several witnesses said the Jeep was traveling at least 40 mph when it hit the bus shelter, but officers at the scene could not immediately estimate how fast it was going.

The owner of the Jeep was interviewed at the crash site by investigators from the LAPD’s West Traffic Bureau. His passenger also was interviewed.

Keith Hasselmann, 46, of Hollywood said that 23 years in the Navy prepared him for many things, but that he was stunned by what he saw. He said he was within 30 yards of the bus shelter.

“I just stood there watching,” he said. “Bodies everywhere . . . just like what you’d expect to see in the military.”

The intersection of Sunset and Vine has been a longtime favorite for tourists who come to Hollywood. NBC Radio City, where many of the network’s radio shows of the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s originated, attracted many to the intersection before the building was torn down in 1964. A popular record store’s radio ads, with a chorus singing “Sunset and Vine,” prompted more people to come.

Now, banks, including the Wells Fargo branch, dominate the corner.