Man recalls little about car crash that killed his mother

The man whose 72-year-old mother was left behind in a crumpled car towed to a police impound lot said Wednesday that he remembers little about the car crash that killed her and put him in a hospital intensive care unit.

From his hospital bed, Steven Williams, 48, of Paso Robles, Calif., said he has epilepsy and believes that he had a seizure in the moments before he slammed the car into a Tarzana strip mall Saturday morning.

His mother, Shirley Lee Williams, was not discovered by authorities until more than 24 hours after the accident. She was found still buckled into the passenger seat, dead from multiple force trauma, according to a preliminary coroner’s report. An air bag that deployed apparently hid her body from view.

Steven Williams said he could not recall the crash and did not even know why he pulled off the 101 Freeway in the San Fernando Valley while he and his mother were on their way to see a friend in Costa Mesa.

Also a blur is when rescuers arrived to help, he said. Paramedics first on the scene told investigators that Williams told them he was alone.

“I find that hard to believe,” he said. “I would have said, ‘Yes my mother is in there, save her.’ ”

Williams, speaking by phone Wednesday from his room at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, was in stable condition after being treated for critical injuries that shattered his right leg and knee. Still, he struggled to recount the events that led to the fatal accident.

The night before, Williams said that he had taken seizure medication for his epilepsy as usual.

“It’s supposed to be safe for you to drive,” he said.

He said he remembers driving south on the 101 Freeway, his mother in the seat beside him.

“I just passed out, and I woke up and I was in the steering wheel,” Williams said. “They said I was speeding -- I didn’t know that, either. I guess I hit a wall.”

He said police later explained that he took the Tampa Avenue exit in Tarzana, steering the 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis through a bank parking lot and into the rear stucco wall of a strip mall.

Investigators have said Williams was given the choice of releasing the car for impound himself or having police handle it. When Los Angeles police impound a vehicle, they are required to inventory the contents. But if a driver chooses to self- impound, the inventory is waived.

Williams said he had no memory of agreeing to have the car towed.

He was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center’s intensive care unit after the crash. Doctors inserted pins into his broken right leg, he said.

Authorities are still investigating what went wrong at the scene of the crash. One of the key issues for authorities is whether Williams appeared capable of answering questions.

Under Los Angeles Fire Department medical protocols, paramedics have to determine a patient’s level of awareness and assess whether he or she may be impaired by trauma as a result of an accident.

In addition to inquiries by Los Angeles fire and police officials, investigators from the state Emergency Medical Services Authority have launched a probe into whether paramedics fully evaluated the accident scene.

No one searched the car thoroughly until relatives trying to find the pair located Steven Williams in the hospital Sunday and then told police that his mother was still missing. Police contacted the impound lot, and her body was found in the car about 3:15 p.m. Sunday.

Williams said police notified him of his mother’s death later that night at the hospital.

He said he did not know whether paramedics could have saved his mother if they had found her immediately. A preliminary coroner’s report issued this week said she probably died of her injuries within minutes of the accident. But Williams said emergency responders could have saved his family the stressful search for his mother.

“They had my grandmother and my niece worried, wondering where she was,” he said.

Williams said he was making plans to have his mother’s body moved to a mortuary in Los Osos, Calif.

Firefighters overlooked the 5-foot-3, 145-pound woman despite being on the scene for more than an hour, according to a Los Angeles Fire Department commander who reviewed dispatch records.

The incident has spurred demands for an inquiry into Los Angeles fire and police procedures to check for accident victims when air bags have deployed.

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molly.hennessy-fiske @latimes.com