Drunk Driver Suspect Faces Charges in Passengers’ Deaths

The California Highway Patrol will ask that a suspected drunk driver be charged with hit-and-run, vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving for abandoning a wreck that killed his three passengers, officers said Monday.

At about 11 p.m. Saturday, Aron Miron, 50, of Pacoima, allegedly drove his car down a 10-foot deep drainage culvert, instantly killing his three passengers, identified Monday as Sun Valley resident Maria Martinez, 51, and a Pacoima husband and wife, Felix, 43, and Maria Alvarez, 41.

“He left the scene and never told anyone of the accident,” said CHP Sgt. Shawn McCarthy.

A pair of passing motorists saw Miron staggering along the dark mountain road near the accident site and offered him a ride.

“He said he’d been carjacked and beat up,” McCarthy said. The unidentified motorists drove to a phone where Miron called friends and the couple called for an ambulance.

Paramedics took the injured Miron to Pacifica Hospital of the Valley in Sun Valley and later transferred him to Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center. The next morning, the motorists who had given Miron a ride saw CHP officers at the accident scene and told them about the man they had picked up Saturday night.

CHP investigators arrested Miron as he was released from the hospital.

Miron was being held without bail at Twin Towers jail until his arraignment, which had not been scheduled Monday.