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Shawn Keith, 34, was killed in a hit-and-run crash after a vehicle struck him as he was walking across the street. According to a news report in The Orange County Register, the fatal pedestrian collision occurred the night of April 17, 2013 in the 14100 block of Springdale Street in Westminster. Police say Keith, who was not in a crosswalk at the time, was walking eastbound across Springdale when a black pickup truck traveling southbound struck him. The driver fled on foot.

Keith was thrown into the northbound lanes by the impact. He died shortly afterward at an area trauma center. Police have identified the Orange County hit-and-run driver as 45-year-old Derek Wright. They say he ran into a nearby residential area and remains at large. He is described as a white male about 6-foot-2 weighing 170 pounds. Anyone who has information about him is asked to contact police at 714-898-3315.

Crash Statistics

Verahram Namdarian, 26, of Garden Grove, was killed in a Santa Ana car accident after the SUV he was driving crashed into a utility pole. According to a news report in The Orange County Register, the fatal crash occurred the night of March 31, 2013. California Highway Patrol officials say Namdarian was driving a small SUV south of Main Street on the northbound 5 Freeway in Santa Ana when the vehicle crashed into a utility pole. The cause of this fatal crash is still under investigation.

Crash Statistics

According to the California Highway Patrol’s 2010 Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS), there were 10 fatalities and 1,461 injuries involving car accidents in the city of Santa Ana. In Orange County as a whole, 100 people died and 13,368 were injured due to car crashes during the same year.

Two men, identified as 38-year-old Armando Garcia-Gonzales and Alberto Casique-Salinas, 47, were killed in a Laguna Beach car crash after their vehicle was struck by another car that veered into opposing lanes of traffic.

According to a news report in The Laguna Beach Patch, the fatal collision occurred early morning April 2, 2013 on Laguna Canyon Road between El Toro Road and the 73 toll road. Police say based on preliminary investigations that a northbound Tesla driven by Robert Pettis, veered into oncoming traffic and collided head on with the Honda Accord carrying the two victims. Both men died at the scene and Pettis was transported to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

CBS Los Angeles reports that police are also looking for a “mystery driver” who may have been involved in the crash. Detectives believe another car may have played a role in the collision, but are not providing any further details. They say it appears that a third vehicle was involved, but that the level of its involvement is not yet known.

A 55-year-old man was killed and five others were injured in a Glendale car accident after a car crashed into a bakery. According to a CBS Los Angeles news report, the fatal crash occurred the afternoon of March 28, 2013 at Oledina’s Cake Factory in the 1100 block of East Broadway. Police say a Lexus, driven by a 72-year-old woman, crossed four lanes of traffic and hit five cars in a strip mall parking lot before it barreled into the bakery. A 55-year-old man who was getting a cup of coffee was struck and pinned against a counter. He died at the scene.

Four others sustained non-life-threatening injuries. A woman who was hit in the bakery’s parking lot was taken to an area hospital. Police said the driver of the Lexus got her nails done across the street and lost control of the vehicle as she was leaving. She was able to walk out of the wreckage. No arrests or citations were reported pending an official investigation.

Crash Statistics

A 9-year-old girl who hiked for help after the SUV her father was driving crashed near Acton, is recovering from her injuries, the Los Angeles Times reports. The girl’s father, 35-year-old Alejandro Renteria, was driving south on Sierra Highway near Soledad Canyon road when he lost control of his Ford Escape. California Highway Patrol officials said the vehicle rolled down an embankment. The girl managed to climb out of the SUV and make her way to a nearby home, but no one answered the door.

She then went back to check on her dad who was unconscious. After that, officials say, she hiked up a steep embankment in a “very dark and threatening environment” to the roadway where she flagged down a vehicle. Renteria was pronounced dead at the scene. The girl was transported to a hospital, but officials say she suffered only minor injuries. Officials are looking into the possibility of the involvement of alcohol. Family members say they are not surprised by the girl’s brave actions because she was very close to her father. Officials say the path she took was dark, brushy and populated by coyotes.

LA Crash Statistics

Lack of sidewalks on Pauba Road is to blame for a tragic accident that has left two women injured, according to Mike Baxter, father of one of the victims who suffered serious injuries. According to a news report in The Temecula Patch, the incident occurred the evening of March 11, 2013. The two women, 19 and 22, were walking westbound in the bicycle lane when they were hit by a Toyota Matrix driven by a female driver who had two young children in the car. Police said the glaring sun temporarily affected the driver’s visibility causing her to drift into the bicycle lane and strike the two women.

Baxter’s 19-year-old daughter sustained serious injuries and remains hospitalized with broken bones and a concussion. Once she is released from the hospital, she faces several months of rehabilitation, her father said. Baxter, his wife Melanie and the mother of the other woman who was struck, are speaking up asking the city to put in sidewalks on the dangerous and busy roadway.

Lack of Sidewalks on Busy Street

Jose Daniel Moreno, 37, was killed in a Pasadena car crash after his car was hit by another vehicle as he was pulling out of his home. The Pasadena Star-News reports that Moreno was pulling out of the driveway of his home in the 600 block of Hill Avenue the night of March 16, 2013 when the collision occurred. Moreno was freed from the wreckage. The other driver, a 48-year-old Pasadena man, was treated for apparently minor injuries. The investigation is ongoing.

According to California Highway Patrol’s 2010 Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) there were six fatalities and 889 injuries involving Pasadena car accidents. In Los Angeles County as a whole, 530 people died and 50,513 were injured due to traffic accidents during the same year.

Right-of-Way Issues

A 93-year-old woman on a mobility scooter suffered severe injuries after a golf cart struck her in a crosswalk at Leisure World, a retirement community in Seal Beach. According to a news account in The Orange County Register, the major injury crash occurred the morning of March 12, 2013 at St. Andrews Drive north of Tam O’Shanter Road. Police say the driver of a golf cart failed to stop for the woman who was riding her mobility scooter across the street in a marked crosswalk, striking her. The elderly woman was transported to an area hospital with major injuries. The driver of the golf cart was not cited or arrested pending an official investigation.

OC Pedestrian Crashes

According to California Highway Patrol’s 2010 Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS), one person died and four were injured as a result of pedestrian collisions in Seal Beach. In Orange County as a whole, 32 fatalities and 770 injuries were reported due to pedestrian accidents during the same year.

Kathryn Rios, 19, of Rowland Heights, suffered major injuries in a car crash in Diamond Bar after an SUV struck her stopped Toyota Corolla on the 57 Freeway. According to a news report in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, the major injury collision occurred the afternoon of March 12, 2013 on the southbound 57 Freeway just south of Brea Canyon Cutoff Road. California Highway Patrol officials say 38-year-old Edward Castaneda of La Habra was driving a Ford Explorer SUV that rear-ended Rios’s car.

He was cited at the scene for driving on a suspended license and failing to provide proof of insurance at a collision scene. Officials do not believe that alcohol or drugs were factors. CHP officials say that for some reason Castaneda failed to notice the Toyota that was stopped directly in front of him. Rios was transported to an area hospital with major injuries. Castaneda was uninjured. The investigation is ongoing.

LA Crash Statistics

Teresa Davis, 46, was killed in a Long Beach car crash after the vehicle in which she was a passenger veered out of control and collided with a pole. The Press-Telegram reports that the fatal car crash occurred early morning on March 10, 2013 at the intersection of Long Beach Boulevard and 56th Street in North Long Beach. Police say Davis was the only passenger in a 2012 Ford Fusion that was driven by 39-year-old Darrell Childs.

The car was going south on Long Beach Boulevard when, for an unknown reason, the car veered onto the west parkway, hit a light pole and then struck a traffic signal pole. Davis died at the scene and Childs was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The cause of this fatal crash is still under investigation. Anyone with information about this crash is asked to contact Long Beach police at 562-570-7355.

Car Crash Statistics