Woman Charged With Manslaughter in Fatal Accident

A 26-year-old La Crescenta woman was charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated after allegedly causing an accident in which two people died on the Glendale Freeway, authorities said Friday.

Na Hyun Kwak was charged in Glendale Superior Court with two counts of vehicular manslaughter and two counts of driving under the influence and causing great bodily injury to the two surviving victims, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Kwak is being held in lieu of $300,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 12 in Glendale Superior Court.

Kwak was driving a Honda Civic when she allegedly rear-ended a Toyota headed north on the Glendale Freeway on Wednesday, the California Highway Patrol said.

The Toyota, which had slowed down in a middle lane, burst into flames on impact and sideswiped a third car, causing minor damage.

Two people in the rear of the Toyota, a 15-year-old Burbank boy and a 35-year-old Tujunga man, died.

A spokesman for the coroner’s office said the victims’ names would not be released pending confirmed identification from dental records.

Other motorists were able to free the Toyota’s driver and front passenger, who were injured. Kwak’s blood-alcohol level was measured at 0.18%, Glendale police said.

The legal limit for driving is 0.08%.