A five-year-old girl and her father are dead and three other patients are in critical condition after a crash in the Harvard Park neighborhood of Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve.
The two-vehicle crash took place shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday in the 5000 block of South Normandie Avenue.
A family of four driving south at the intersection of 60th and Normandie was violently struck by an SUV, which happened to be fleeing the scene of another crash.
The family’s car was forced into a street sign and a fence. The father and his daughter were killed on impact. The mother is now on life support and a 2-year-old is being treated in the pediatric intensive care unit.
David Nicholson says he was one of several people who rushed to the family’s aid.
“When he lifted her up and put her back down, that’s when I looked into her eyes and her eyes weren’t moving,” Nicholson said of the young girl.
Moments before the crash, home surveillance cameras captured the same white SUV speeding down a side street followed by a red sedan. According to police, the driver of the red car had just been rear ended by the white SUV and was chasing it.
Neighbors said the red car stopped at the stop sign while the SUV plowed through it.
“I had my daughter inside and I told her, this is why we don’t go out at night, because people drive sometimes terribly or they’re drinking and driving,” neighbor Timothy Vizza told KTLA’s Rachel Menitoff. “It’s scary.
The deadly collision was one of three separate fatal New Year’s Eve crashes in South L.A., all within an hour of each other. Residents of the Harvard Park neighborhood say it doesn’t take long before you see a car flying down the street.
They’ve seen numerous crashes and cars spin out.
“We don’t take this street up there,” Vizza said. “When we have to turn, we always go around because of how bad it is, that corner.”
Detectives believe that alcohol may have been a factor in the crash.
The driver of the SUV was also badly injured and taken to the hospital. He could be facing manslaughter charges.
Meanwhile, people in the neighborhood are hoping that the fatality serves as a wakeup call. They’d like to see a stop light installed at Normandie Avenue to prevent tragedies like this in the future.