Boy, 14, and Man Killed in Separate Car Crashes

Two people, including a boy on a bicycle who attempted to cross a freeway, died in separate car accidents in north Los Angeles County on Saturday, authorities said.

In Palmdale, Steven Vic, 14, of Lancaster was struck by a car and killed as he tried to cross the Antelope Valley Freeway, California Highway Patrol Officer Rosa Ray said.

He was with his 13-year-old cousin, who had darted across the freeway on a bicycle just ahead of him, Ray said.

But when Steven ventured into the southbound lanes, just south of Avenue P in Palmdale, he was hit. The driver, Lawrence Lobdell, 57, of Los Angeles, sustained minor cuts on his forehead and hands, Ray said.

Firefighters pronounced the boy dead at 3:41 p.m., said Art Marrujo, a dispatch supervisor at the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

It is illegal to ride a bicycle on the freeway, Ray noted.

In the Santa Clarita Valley, a young man was killed in an apparent hit-and-run accident in a residential neighborhood.

The crash occurred about 5 p.m. on Plum Canyon Road, near Via Joyce Drive in an unincorporated area of Saugus, said Lt. Larry Gump of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department station in Santa Clarita. A car zooming down a hill lost control and slammed into a light pole, cutting the vehicle in half, Gump said.

Investigators found the unidentified victim inside the mangled wreck, and a witness had seen a teenager--believed to be the driver--running from the car.

“Any time you leave the scene of an accident, it’s a hit-and-run,” Gump said.

Authorities were searching the area Saturday night for the suspect, described a white teenager, 6 feet tall and wearing a blue-and-white shirt and baggy pants.

The collisions cap a week in which a string of fatal car accidents has occurred locally--several involving teenagers. On Wednesday, a 16-year-old Littlerock High School student riding with a group of teenagers was killed in a Palmdale crash. The next day, on Thanksgiving, a 59-year-old woman was killed when a van broadsided her car in Lancaster. And a week ago, two teenage boys were killed when the stolen car they were riding in veered out of control and flipped near Palmdale.

Sgt. Russ Hill of the sheriff’s station in Palmdale said the accidents involving teenagers were the product of “immature, poor judgment.”

“I would ask for parents to please be careful and keep closer tabs on their children,” Hill said.