Temple City couple killed in crash were antique car enthusiasts

The Temple City couple were out for a ride in a car they adored: a 1931 Model A Ford with white-wall tires that they had poured so much time and money into restoring.

The husband and wife had been driving the car all day, and the husband gushed to an acquaintance that the car was “running like a top” when they stopped for dinner Monday night. But an hour later, the husband and wife were dead after their antique vehicle slammed into a tree and burst into flames less than a mile from their house.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office identified the couple as Florean Frank Izbinski, 81, and Cristina Alicia Izbinski, 67. On Tuesday morning, flowers had been placed at the burned base of the tree.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives are working to piece together what had happened.

Florean Izbinski was driving east on Broadway about 7 p.m. when the car went up onto a curb on the east side of the street, hitting a tree near Broadway and Temple City Boulevard, Traffic Det. William Holverson said.

After the car struck the tree, witnesses pulled Cristina Izbinski out of the vehicle, but the fire was burning too intensely to get Florean Izbinski out, Holverson said.

It is unclear, authorities said, what caused the crash and whether the occupants died from the impact or the subsequent blaze. Holverson said detectives did not yet know whether there was mechanical failure involved or if Florean Izbinski had any medical conditions.

The interior of the car, he said, was so badly burned that it was unclear whether seatbelts had been installed. Many antique cars do not have them.

“Nowadays, all the materials you see in a car are fire-resistant,” he added. “Not in that” Model A.

A man at the couple’s Temple City home referred to the couple as relatives and declined to speak to a reporter, saying the family was grieving.

Temple City resident Steve Stafford, 59, was out for his usual walk along Broadway on Monday night when he heard a loud boom. He called the fire department, thinking there was an explosion. Then, he saw thick black smoke. As he got closer to the scene of the crash, he saw the car, fully engulfed in flames.

“I just thought that if people were in there, they were dead,” Stafford said. “It was too intense.”

He said he saw people trying to get the occupants out of the car.

“By the time they got them out, they were gone,” he said. “The firemen looked at them for a couple of minutes and then put the orange sheets over them.”

Stafford has lived in the area since 1955, and the car was a familiar sight. Others said the same, that they frequently saw the car driving through, and at car shows.

Bonnie Nelson, 73, a member of the Santa Anita A’s, an Arcadia-based club for Model A enthusiasts, said the Izbinskis were members of the club.

Nelson was having dinner at a Denny’s in Temple City on Monday night when she noticed the Izbinskis’ gleaming Model A in the parking lot. She didn’t know them well, but they enthused about the car, saying they had been driving all day.

Florean Izbinski, wearing a brown fedora, told Nelson he’d recently had the car worked on, and that it was “running like a top.”

“He was very proud of his car,” she said. “He’d put a lot of money into restoring it.”

They looked happy, she said.

Nelson, who owns a 1930 Model A, said most of the vehicles do not have seatbelts and that the gas tank is in the front of the car.

“I didn’t sleep last night,” Nelson said. “I drive one of those cars, and if I’m driving with a bomb in front of me, I’m going to sell my car.”

Twitter: @brittny_mejia

Twitter: @haileybranson