3 Killed, 1 Hurt in Pasadena Crash

Three men were killed and a 70-year-old man injured in a head-on collision early Friday on the Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena.

According to Pasadena police, Robert Ellingson of Eagle Rock was returning home from a night shift at the Postal Service’s Processing and Distribution Center in Pasadena when a Volkswagen traveling east on the bridge crossed the center line on a curve and struck Ellingson’s Chevrolet Nova.

The three occupants of the Volkswagen--driver Benjamin Jauregui, 26, Christopher Gardner, 25, and Albert Sanchez, 23--were killed. All three were from Alhambra, police said.

Ellingson was taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in fair condition after undergoing surgery on his mouth, hospital officials said.

Hospital officials said Ellingson was being kept for observation and is expected to be released in a few days.

Police said the Volkswagen was traveling nearly 50 mph in a 35-mph zone.

Lt. Rod Uyeda of the city’s traffic division said drugs and alcohol did not appear to be factors in the accident, but that police were awaiting autopsy and toxicology reports.

The two-lane, 150-foot-high bridge has long been a scene of death.

In addition to traffic fatalities, more than 100 people have jumped to their deaths from the bridge since it was built in 1913.