Collision leaves two dead in LCF

April 02, 2009|By Robin Goldsworthy and Mary O'Keefe

A car carrier heading southbound on Angeles Crest Highway shortly before 6 p.m. on Wednesday may have lost its brakes, causing a multiple vehicle accident that resulted in two fatalities and 12 injuries, three of them critical.

Marcos Costa, 43, of Massachusetts is being held on $200,000 bail for vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence at the Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Station after the semi-truck car carrier he was driving crashed into several vehicles, running over a red sedan killing its two occupants before ending up in the Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeehouse building on Foothill.

The dead are Angel Jorge Posca, 58, and his 12-year-old daughter Angelina, both of Palmdale. They had just exited the eastbound Foothill (210) Freeway at Angeles Crest Highway in their red Ford Escort and were starting to turn north on the highway to return to Palmdale when the semi-truck struck their vehicle.

"They were pushed down Angeles Crest," said CV Sheriff's Sgt. Mark Slater.

According to witnesses, the vehicles seemed to fly as the carrier truck plowed down the 'Crest.

The injured parties were transported to area hospitals for treatment, according to Capt. Mike Brown of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

A woman working in the Melody nail salon next door to the bookstore reportedly suffered a broken leg, and a 17-year-old female driver from La Canada was air-lifted to a Los Angeles medical center with a broken femur. Memorial Park served as a temporary helicopter pad for medical transport.

"I offer my sympathies to their families and friends and my deep sorrow for the two persons killed when an apparent runaway truck slammed into a bookstore in our city," Mayor Laura Olhasso said in a prepared statement at the scene of the accident about 4 hours after the accident took place. "We are outraged that our numerous demands to Caltrans to immediately address the significant safety issues of out of control trucks on Angeles Crest Highway were ignored."

The carrier apparently hit a number of vehicles, running over a red sedan, killing its occupants before ending up in the Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeehouse at the intersection of Foothill Boulevard and Angeles Crest Highway.

The skies were crowded with helicopters and the air filled with the screams of ambulances Wednesday evening as the California Highway Patrol closed Angeles Crest Highway at the 210 Freeway offramps.

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