David Maghamifar, CSULB Grad From Italy, Dies When Car Flies off Pier at L.A. Harbor

Categories: Crash, Death

david maghamifar.jpg
David Maghamifar via Facebook
The 25-year-old whose car flew off Pier 300 at Los Angeles Harbor on Saturday afternoon has been identified as David Maghamifar.

A Facebook profile that appears to belong to the victim says he grew up in Genova, Italy -- attending high school at Liceo Classico Emiliani -- before moving to SoCal for college. Maghamifar says he graduated from Cal State Long Beach in 2010.

According to weekend news reports, witnesses at the Harbor saw his car...

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Amber Popiel, Santa Clarita Mom, Killed When Car Splits in Half on Soledad Canyon Road

Categories: Crash

amber pompiel twitter.jpeg
Amber via Twitter
The Santa Clarita woman killed over the weekend in a brutal crash along Soledad Mountain Road has been identified as 30-year-old Amber Popiel.

The victim "graduated from Canyon High School in 2000 and worked at Peterson Dean Roofing," reports the Santa Clarita Valley Signal. She was just a mile-and-a-half from home at the time of the crash. And a neighbor on Twitter says she is survived by...

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Jet Crashes Near Camarillo Airport

Categories: Crash

hawker hunter.JPG
Hawker Hunter.
Updated at the bottom with more information about the plane, which was being used by the military. Headline has been changed. First posted at 12:49 p.m.

A private jet crashed near Camarillo Airport this afternoon, according to authorities and reports.

A Ventura County sheriff's captain told the Weekly it happened about 12:15 p.m. near Hueneme and Las Posas roads. He couldn't confirm that it was a private jet, as some Twitter users were saying.

No word on injuries.

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Lincoln Town Car Crashes Into Luxury L.A. Car Shop, Hits Ferrari Identical to Kobe Bryant's

Categories: Crash

town car crash.jpg
ABC7
Town Car, meet Ferrari.
A Lincoln Town Car reportedly being used as a fancy taxi smashed into the Specialty Car Craft customization and parts shop on South La Cienega (a low-profile go-to for L.A. celebrities) around 3:30 a.m.

The impact shattered the shop's entire glass front -- causing a window frame and hundreds of shards to rain down on a yellow Ferrari identical to Kobe Bryant's. The word "Baller24" (if you can call that a word) is even plastered across the front windshield, written backward so as to show up in rearview mirrors.

Compare and contrast:

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Reseda Crash: Old Woman in Station Wagon Plows Into Dentist's Office, Injures Six

Categories: Crash

reseda dental crash.jpg
NBC LA
Oops.
An 82-year-old woman driving an old, beat-up station wagon crashed into the front of a Reseda dentist's office today, sending three bystanders to the hospital in critical condition and injuring three more.

The driver, however, was completely uninjured, says Matt Spence at the L.A. City Fire Department. He does not know whether any dentists or dental patients were involved, but says...

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Hiram Medina, 'Tattoo Artist' From Van Nuys, Dies in Fiery Crash With 405 Center Divide

Categories: Crash, Death

405 crash medina.jpg
NBC LA
The wreckage.
An SUV reportedly exploded yesterday night after smashing into a center divider (as well as the post holding up an overpass) on the 405 freeway.

The driver has since been identified as 27-year-old Hiram Medina of Van Nuys, reports NBC LA. And commenters at the LA Daily News say he was a "tattoo artist" with a small son.

Medina was apparently driving a white-and-yellow Chevy Blazer on the 405 South...

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Hakop Maghakyan's Alleged Drinking, Driving and Hitting a Tanker Don't Mix on 134 Freeway. Yet He's Out on $5,000 Bail: VIDEO

tanker fire.jpg
This fiery scene on the 134 Freeway brought to you by a drunk driver (allegedly.)
By Andra Lim

You have a little too much, you get in your car, you start up the engine.

It's a stupid idea -- and even stupider if you can't avoid hitting the huge double-rig tanker that's carrying over 6,000 gallons of oil. The tanker fire at I- 5 and the 134 Freeway dominated headlines this weekend, and here's how it went down:

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Connor Penhall, 21-Year-Old Caltrans Worker and Son of Racer/Actor Bruce Penhall, Killed by Alleged Drunk Driver

Categories: Crash, Death

connor penhall dead.jpg
@connorpenhall via Twitter
Bruce Penhall's young son died while working on the 10 last night.
Updated after the jump: Caltrans responds, and the ghost of Penhall expresses unhappiness with his job.

Originally posted at 8:30 a.m.

The victim of a late-night crash on the 10 West has been identified as 21-year-old Connor Penhall, a Caltrans subcontractor and the son of racer-turned-actor Bruce Penhall.

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Marie Hardwick, East L.A. Artist, Crippled by Hit-and-Run After LACMA Film Screening

Categories: Crash, Crime

marie hardwick.jpg
Facebook
Marie Hardwick, hit-and-run victim.
A 24-year-old artist who lives in East L.A. was plowed down by a hit-and-run driver in a black BMW convertible on Sunday morning, according to friends on Facebook.

LA Observed and CBS LA have since picked up the story -- a terrifying one, and all too characteristic of the thousands of hit-and-runs that Los Angeles sees every year.

Marie Hardwick had just attended a film screening at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, when...

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L.A. Fire Department Posts Gruesome Photos of Train vs. Benz Crash in Downtown L.A.

Categories: Crash

benz train crash thumb.jpg
Rick McClure/LAFD's photostream
Metro takes on a Mercedes-Benz. And wins.
One week after the controversial media blackout on L.A. Fire Department response times and addresses -- ordered by Fire Chief Brian Cummings -- is the department overcompensating for its much-ridiculed secrecy?

LAFD photographers Rick McClure and Mike Meadows snapped some insane photos of a train vs. Mercedes Benz crash two Saturdays ago, on the same weekend as the blackout began. (Our favorites below.)

But they were just posted to the department's Flickr account this week...

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L.A. Food Truck Driver Dies in Crash With Mercedes Near Pico-Union

Categories: Crash

food truck crash.jpg
@KFINEWS via Twitter
"Steve here in downtown LA-Foodtruck and Mercedes collide, driver of food truck ejected and killed, 2 others injured"
Update: The dead driver has been identified as 55-year-old L.A. resident Elba Escobar. More at the bottom.

Originally posted March 20 at 6:10 p.m.

A horrific crash between a food truck and a Mercedes in the Pico-Union area of central Los Angeles has left one dead and two seriously injured, says Sergeant Larry Delgado, watch commander for the LAPD's Central Traffic Division.

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7 Camp Pendleton Marines Killed in Helicopter Collision Over Arizona

Categories: Crash, Death

camp pendleton.jpeg
Salem-News.com
Camp Pendleton is a huge Marine Corps base about an hour-and-a-half south of L.A.
Horror at the Yuma, Arizona training range: Two helicopters reportedly collided around 8 p.m. last night during a training exercise, killing seven marines from SoCal.

Though reports originally indicated that the marines were based out of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, located just east of La Jolla, the Associated Press now confirms with Miramar officials that the downed marines are from Camp Pendleton, the coastal base a few miles north.

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Jeffrey Minifie Charged With Murder: He Allegedly Kidnapped Girlfriend, Killed Her in High-Speed LAPD Pursuit

Categories: Crash, Crime, Death

suv kidnap crash.jpg
ABC7
Minifie's deadly weapon.
An insane car crash in Westlake last Thursday was overshadowed by two other big L.A. crime stories that day: the guy who shot up a Hollywood apartment before setting it on fire, and the ICE-officer shooting in Long Beach.

But the crimes of alleged kidnapper Jeffrey Minifie, 39, whose passenger died in the heat of an LAPD pursuit ...

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Unlicensed Driver Tenina Calhoun Crashes SUV Into Palm Tree; 3 L.A. Sisters Dead

Categories: Crash, Death

hyde park crash.jpg
KTLA
The mangled Infiniti.
The three fatalities in Friday's tragic collision between an Infiniti SUV and a Hyde Park palm tree have been identified as a trio of sisters from the South L.A. area, according to City News Service.

The youngest, 19-year-old Jeshai Chanae Jones, was declared dead just hours after the 2:45 a.m. crash; Enisha Marie Davis, two years older, died Sunday afternoon; and 28-year-old Tiesha Turner held on until just past noon on Monday. Two additional passengers, as well as the driver, are still in the hospital.

The horrific crash has rekindled a politicized argument about impounding the cars of unlicensed drivers:

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Alex Rodriguez, Young Duarte Man, Dies When Car Flies off Highway 39 Cliff

Categories: Crash, Death

alex mijo garcia.jpg
lovestrawduh via Tumblr
This post has been updated to correct information about the victim's identity.

Twenty-year-old Duarte man Alex Rodriguez was declared dead early Sunday morning. He had driven his Honda sedan off the side of the windy, cliffside San Gabriel Canyon Road -- also known as Highway 39.

A 16-year-old girl in his passenger's seat, also from Duarte, was transported to Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center with "only minor injuries," according to City News Service.

Around 1:10 a.m. ...

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Karma? Fed-Ex Truck Crashes Into L.A. Metro Bus, Just Miles From Occupy's Fed-Ex Protest

fed ex protest.jpg
Good Jobs LA
Conspiracies!

On this suspiciously nice-weathered morning in Los Angeles, a freak accident between a Fed-Ex truck and a Metro bus has blocked Van Nuys Boulevard in Panorama City.

The crash occurred mere hours before a big union- and Occupy L.A.-vetted protest of Fed-Ex (and other "corporate tax dodgers") was set to stage at the intersection of Sunset and Vine...

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Vigen Sarkisyan, 18, Killed When Car Plunges 500 Feet off Angeles Crest Highway

Categories: Crash, Death

vigen sarkisyan.jpg
Vigen Sarkisyan via Facebook
Sarkisyan's apparent profile picture.
Corrected at the bottom: There was apparently no car involved in the plunge.

An 18-year-old from Sunland-Tujunga, a small mountain community in northeast Los Angeles, died in a tragic Sunday-afternoon accident off Angeles Crest Highway.

Vigen Sarkisyan was in a car with two of his friends when it flew off the side of the highway -- plunging 500 feet into a ravine in the Angeles National Forest.

One of his friends managed to crawl up to the road and flag down some help...

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Angelo Bowers, L.A. Comedian, Killed by Drunk 21-Year-Old in Attempted Hit-and-Run

Categories: Crash, Death

angelo bowers comedian killed.png
@AngelosJokes via Twitter
The lone fatality of an early-morning DUI pileup on January 3 has been identified as 26-year-old Angelo Bowers.

According to comedy site LaughSpin, Bowers -- who didn't have a Twitter or Facebook account -- was somewhat of a comic's comic, well-known and -loved by the insider L.A. comedy community. Twitter handle @AngelosJokes has since been set up to remember some of the drunk-driving victim's finest one-liners. (Example: "Everybody thinks I'm Jewish at the acting class I go to. It's the temple on Melrose. I study under Rabi Liev Schreiber." More at the bottom.)

An LAPD statement describes the messy crash that led to Bowers' death:

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USC Student Knocked off Motorcycle by Hit-and-Run Driver 'in Critical Condition'

Categories: Crash

lexington hit run driver usc student.jpg
Google Maps
The driver was last seen speeding west on Lexington.
A 21-year-old motorcycle rider who attended USC was run over by a burgundy GMC Safari van from 1993 yesterday, just after the sun went down. After crashing into the bike at Vermont and Lexington near Los Feliz, the van took off down Lexington without looking back.

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Jomo Zambia, Convicted L.A. Pimp, Crashes Into Inglewood Police Car After Being Murdered in Red BMW

Categories: Crash, Crime, Death

JOMO ZAMBIA.jpg
Jomo Zambia via Facebook
Updated at the bottom: VIDEO of Zambia, nickname "RoseMo," beating up local L.A. rapper Boskoe1 just a few days back. The crew drives off in a red BMW. (Also, rapper Waka Flocka Flame denies affiliation with RoseMo.)

Update: Zambia and a member of Waka Flocka's crew claim in a video interview to have knocked out The Game at a Culver City mall in September. The motive? Game had allegedly been "getting out of line on Twitter and shit." Inglewood homicide detectives say they're looking into the activity. Details below.

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