Office Mourns 3 Colleagues Killed in Crash

Workers at the High Desert Hemodialysis Center grieved Friday for three co-workers killed when a parolee allegedly speeding in a stolen Jeep Cherokee slammed head-on into their sport utility vehicle.

A number of the employees stayed home mourning their co-workers. The victims in the accident were described as caring and dedicated, having spent months planning for a new dialysis center scheduled to open later this year, said Paul Hamblin, director of social services for the High Desert center.

“If it had been 10 seconds earlier or 10 seconds later, it wouldn’t have happened,” said Hamblin, adding that a patient notified the center’s staff of the tragedy after, coincidentally, driving by the crash scene and recognizing the wounded.

Early Friday, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials said they had arrested the driver of the Jeep, Shawn Eugene Beavers, 27, of Rosamond, on suspicion of violating parole for a burglary.

After an investigation of the crash, which should be completed by next week, Beavers is expected to be charged with four counts of vehicular manslaughter and possibly drunk and reckless driving, said Palmdale Deputy Jeff Perkins of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Also killed was Therese Frisch, 38, of Lancaster, a passenger in the Jeep Cherokee that witnesses told police was going 90 to 100 mph on northbound Sierra Highway on Thursday when it rear-ended a pickup truck, crossed the lane divider and slammed into the Lexus sport utility vehicle carrying a doctor and four of his co-workers.

Until toxicology reports from the county coroner’s office are completed, it remains unclear whether Beavers and Frisch were intoxicated, Perkins said. Police found beer cans, open and unopened, and narcotics paraphernalia in the Jeep but no drugs, Perkins said.

Beavers, who was driving a dark green 1993 Cherokee that had been reported stolen Sunday in Sherman Oaks, broke both legs and is in the sheriff’s jail ward at County/USC Medical Center near downtown. Officials there declined to comment on his condition.

One of the victims was Georgina Schmidt, 43, of Lancaster, who raised her 11-year-old son, Dylan, while working at the dialysis center.

“She wanted to watch her son grow up and this guy took it away from her,” said her ex-husband, Brad Schmidt, with whom she had remained friends. “I won’t be able to replace her. The main thing in her life was her son--that he be happy and grow up right. It’s a tragedy that this happened and somebody should answer to this.”

The other two people who died were a husband and wife--Mark Rittenberg, 52, and Mary Rittenberg, 41, of Palmdale--who worked together and doted on their two daughters and two grandchildren, colleagues said.

“They were very much in love,” Hamblin said. “They were like newlyweds all the time. They were well loved by patients and peers.”

Dr. John Fisher, the driver of the Lexus, suffered minor injuries. He is medical director of the High Desert Hemodialysis Center and a kidney specialist at Antelope Valley Hospital.

The other passenger, 37-year-old Linda Mann, was in critical but stable condition Friday at Lancaster Community Hospital.

Donations may be sent to the Family Fund, High Desert Hemodialysis Center, 1007 W. Ave. M-14B, Palmdale, CA 93551. For information, one may call High Desert at (661) 265-7810.