3 Killed, 5 Hurt in Head-On Collision

Three men were killed and two injured when their subcompact car slammed head-on into a pickup truck Thursday in the Sepulveda Pass, authorities said.

Firefighters said the pregnant wife of one of the men killed was traveling near him in another car. After witnessing the accident, the woman was so shaken that she was taken to a local hospital, a Los Angeles City Fire Department spokesman said.

The small car, a red Suzuki Swift, was heading north on Sepulveda Boulevard when it drifted over the center line on a sharp curve about one mile south of Mulholland Drive.

The car barreled into the southbound path of a gray Toyota pickup, with the impact crushing the driver’s side of the Suzuki and trapping the occupants inside, said Capt. Frank Fletcher of the Los Angeles City Fire Department.

The Suzuki driver and two passengers riding in the back seat were pronounced dead at the scene, while two other passengers were rushed to hospitals with injuries.

All five were described as men in their 20s or 30s, Fletcher said.

Three other people were also hurt, including the Toyota’s 25-year-old driver. He suffered facial lacerations and complained of back pain after his pickup flipped onto its side, officials said.

The other two were drivers who lost control of their vehicles in a chain reaction triggered by the crash, said firefighter and paramedic Vince Marzo. Both of those drivers sustained minor injuries and were treated at the scene.

Marzo, one of the first to respond to the scene, said the men in the Suzuki did not appear to be wearing seat belts.

The crash occurred on a curve notorious for accidents. Two men died on the same stretch after crossing into oncoming traffic last October.

Six ambulances and one helicopter responded to the crash, but the Suzuki was so badly crushed that rescuers could not immediately free the victims. It took about 12 minutes for the Fire Department to bring a “jaws of life” extricating device to the scene, Fletcher said.

Authorities closed Sepulveda between Mulholland and Mountaingate Drive after the 3:45 p.m. crash, sending a stream of backlogged cars onto the San Diego Freeway amid the evening rush hour.

“This is like a runway,” Fletcher said, noting that last week a motorcyclist had crashed at the same spot.

Witnesses told police that the red car was traveling “at a high rate of speed” in the 35 mph zone, said Sgt. Terri Brinkmeyer of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Motorists often speed through the mountain pass, she noted. “People travel through here at a high rate of speed,” Brinkmeyer said. “They’re on cell phones, changing the CD, the usual.”

Fletcher said that the road was so accident-prone that several years ago he asked city transportation officials to improve its safety. The city installed a guardrail and signs indicating a sharp curve. But there is no center divider to prevent cars from crossing over into oncoming traffic.

One man injured in the crash, identified by hospital staff as Ryan Craig, 25, of Los Angeles, was listed in good condition with facial cuts at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center. Authorities could not say which vehicle he was in.

A 26-year-old man, who also suffered facial cuts, was in good condition at Northridge Hospital Medical Center. Another man in his 20s, who suffered broken ribs, was in serious condition at UCLA Medical Center, according to a nurse supervisor.

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Times staff writer Andrew Blankstein contributed to this story.