Elderly Driver Hits Students, Adults Crossing Meridian Street

Update:

Five family members were injured Friday, two of them critically, when they were hit by an SUV driven by an 87-year-old man as they crossed a Highland Park street near Yorkdale Elementary School, a Los Angeles Fire Department official said.   

The incident occurred at 8:12 a.m. in the 900 block of North Avenue 57, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott said.   

The collision left a 52-year-old grandmother and a 10-year-old girl in critical condition, LAFD Battalion Chief Steve Ruda said. A 32-year-old woman who is the daughter of the 59-year-old woman and her two sons, ages 7 and 9, were listed in serious condition, Ruda said. The 10-year-old girl was a cousin, he said. All three children were believed to be Yorkdale students. 

“The grandmother was taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena and the other four people were transported to LAC-USC Medical Center, but the driver was not injured,” Ruda said.   

The driver—identified in broadcast reports as 87-year-old Luis Carbajal— ran a stop sign as the family walked from Meridian Street to North Avenue 57 in a crosswalk, LAPD spokesman Richard French told City News Service.    

An area resident told NBC4 Carbajal said his foot “got stuck” and he could not brake. “He stopped in the middle of the street and he was devastated,” Wilson Caraman told NBC4.

— City News Service

Previously:

An elderly man driving a car allegedly hit a number of students and adults on Meridian Street in Highland Park Friday morning. 

According to witnesses, two students from Yorkdale Elementary School on Meridian Street and three adults were injured in the accident.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

An officer at the Central Traffic Collision Division of the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed that the accident occurred on Meridian and Avenue 57. But the officer, who identified himself over the phone only as Aguayo, told Patch at around 9:30 a.m. that he did not have any details of the accident. Traffic officers were still at the scene of the accident, he said.

Yorkdale Elementary School Principal Carol Green told Patch that she and her staff were “gathering the evidence” and that was unable to provide any specific information. “I can’t confirm anything at this point,” she said in response to a question about how many students from her school might have been involved in the accident.

Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council President Michael Nogueira, who happened to be in the area and took the attached photos, told Patch that the injured were taken to hospital in an ambulance soon after the accident, which, he said, occurred around 8 a.m. 

“I believe they were on a crosswalk but there’s no crossing guard there,” said Nogueira, who is also the president of the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce as well as the owner of Sir Michael’s Party Rentals on Eagle Rock Boulevard.

The elderly driver appeared to be in his eighties, Nogueira said, adding: “I asked him if he wanted me to call someone for him. He said, No, I’m okay.”

Patch will update this story as further details come to light.