Driver Dies After Hitting Police Car

A man was burned to death Sunday afternoon after his sports car spun out on a rain-slicked freeway in Pacoima and slammed into a California Highway Patrol sedan, causing both vehicles to burst into flames, authorities said.

Two officers inside the CHP car, which had been parked on the left-hand shoulder of the Ronald Reagan Freeway near the Glenoaks Boulevard onramp, were trapped at first because the vehicle’s doors had jammed. They broke their windows and crawled out.

The officers, a man and a woman, suffered minor injuries, according to the CHP.

The driver of the Mazda RX-7 could not be immediately identified.

About 3:15 p.m. Sunday, the CHP car was guarding a disabled pickup that had crashed into the center divider, said Officer Vince Bell.

The patrol car, which was flashing its emergency lights, was parked directly behind the blue Ford Ranger awaiting a tow truck. Neither vehicle was blocking any lanes, Bell said.

A short while later, the Mazda zoomed up in the freeway’s fast lane, going at least 85 mph, a witness told the CHP.

The Mazda’s driver “hit water and he hydroplaned. He was going too fast and lost control of the car,” Officer Dan Oxley said. The vehicle spun and rear-ended the patrol car. Both cars were immediately engulfed in flames.

“The two officers . . . looked at the other car and it was fully engulfed. There was nothing they could do for [the other] vehicle,” Bell said.