Crash leaves woman partly paralyzed

A Sylmar woman remains in critical condition after the driver of the car in which she was riding, who allegedly was intoxicated, rear-ended a parked truck.

Analy Perez, 20, was in the passenger’s seat of a pickup truck driven by 21-year-old Jesse Santiago at 4:45 a.m. when it crashed into a flat-bed tow truck parked at a curb on the 2900 block of North San Fernando Boulevard on Sunday morning.

Burbank police arrested Santiago, a Glendale resident, at the scene for driving under the influence. He was released on bail early Monday morning.

Perez, however, remains in the intensive care unit of Los Angeles County USC Hospital, according to police officials.

“She still has partial paralysis in her lower extremities,” said Detective Paul Orlowski. “She has a broken neck and also suffered from head trauma.”

Santiago was driving southbound near the Ramada Inn in Burbank when the collision occurred, police said.

The latest crime statistics for Burbank show a drop of more than 50% in driving-under-the-influence arrests from last year between January and February, from 90 to 41 arrests.

The collision remains under investigation and Santiago is scheduled to be arraigned at Los Angeles Superior Court in Burbank on April 25.

Any witnesses are asked to call Orlowski at (818) 238-3100.

--Kelly Corrigan contributed to this report.