Walnut church reeling over deaths of 4 on 60 Freeway
The five young men were part of a caravan of vehicles motoring to an Ontario ice skating rink Friday when their car swerved on the 60 Freeway in Pomona and slammed into a concrete divider.
Three were hurled from the Toyota Camry -- one tossed clear to the other side of the road. Within moments, members of Walnut Blessing Church of the Nazarene found two of the young men already dead.
“Everyone regrouped back here. We had to tell the parents of those who died,” said Peter Lundell, a co-pastor at the primarily Korean church.
When a third young man died in the hospital, spirits plummeted further. The dead included a 19-year-old, an 18-year-old and a 16-year-old.
“That sort of sent everyone into a whole new depth of depression,” the pastor said.
Then, just a few hours later, a fourth, a 21-year-old man, was dead too.
No names have been released, but Lundell said the young men were a mix of recent congregants. At least two had been cultivated within the fold for years while at least one of the youths had struggled with the ups and downs of a hard life. But things had been looking up, Lundell said.
“They loved God. They loved Jesus. Their lives were changing,” the pastor said as church members grieved nearby, too heartbroken to talk. “One of them had grown up in the church, and we had been through a lot with him. We were so proud of him, and we were excited about what he was going to do with his life.”
California Highway Patrol Officer Joe Zizi said the 10:45 a.m. crash occurred west of Reservoir Street and involved excessive speed. He said it was unclear whether the driver was speeding to catch up with others or racing.
He said witnesses told officers that the Toyota was traveling near a silver Dodge Neon -- later stopped by investigators for questioning -- at the time of the accident.
Only one of the men in the Toyota was wearing a seat belt, and he was the only one who remained in the vehicle, although he too died, Zizi said. The Toyota was registered to one of the men traveling in the car.
Investigators stopped the occupants of the Dodge at an exit east of the crash site. The occupants told officers that they were on a church trip with the victims.
Lundell said he had been told that the driver of the Toyota was “speeding to catch up” to a car ahead, “not racing with them, not side by side.”
He said that the victims were Korean Americans and that two of them, a 19-year-old who died, and a 16-year-old who was the lone survivor, were brothers. Lundell said he heard from the hospital that the 16-year-old looked like he might survive.
The pastor ministers mostly to the English-speaking members of the church. He said he drove to the scene after he found out about the crash.
“It was gruesome,” Lundell said, his voice cracking. “The car impacted very fiercely. It was airborne at one time and hit the center post.”
He said the duty of talking about the young men had fallen to him because “it seems everyone’s tears are dried out and nobody can talk.”
The pastor said the young men were “happy guys” who were finding their purpose in life. At least one was a student at Mt. San Antonio College and one attended Walnut High School, he said.
“The consolation is they were good guys and I know they’re with the Lord,” Lundell said. “But we’re still on this Earth and we grieve.”
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molly.hennessy-fiske @latimes.com
hector.becerra@latimes.com
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