Accident

This week La Cañada High School students acted out some of their worst nightmares, pretending to die in a car accident or get arrested for drunk driving as part of a demonstration put on by a host of local law enforcement and public safety agencies. “Every 15 Minutes” is a traveling show meant to highlight the dangers of driving while impaired. It derives its name from a statistic showing that one person in the United States dies every 15 minutes as a result of an incident involving alcohol.

A Montrose woman lost her life in a traffic accident on La Tuna Canyon Road Tuesday morning. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, around 8:45 a.m. on Tuesday a silver Jeep crossed the double yellow line in the 9300 block of La Tuna Canyon into the path of a dark colored Saturn driven by Michelle Wincentsen, 31, of Montrose. "Wincentsen was unconscious when paramedics pulled her from the wreckage. They worked on her but pronounced her dead at the scene," said an LAPD spokesperson.

La Cañada Flintridge officials will host a memorial ceremony next Thursday at Glenola Park to mark the one-year anniversary of the April 1, 2009 traffic accident on Angeles Crest Highway that killed a 58-year-old Palmdale man and his 12-year-old daughter. “We felt it was a very tragic event that affected the entire community and we wanted to recognize the importance of it, and also memorialize Angel and Angelina Posca, who were killed in the accident,” said Kevin Chun, director of administrative services.

A car carrier heading southbound on Angeles Crest Highway after 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday may have lost its brakes, causing a multiple vehicle accident that resulted in two fatalities and 14 injuries, three of them critical. The identies of the fatalities had not been released as of 9:45 p.m.; "The victims were from the Palmdale area," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept. Sgt. Rich Pena. The injured parties were transported to area hospitals for treatment, accofding to Capt.

W ith prom just a few days away, La Cañada High School students this week received a sobering lesson about the dangers of drunken driving that included a staged fatal traffic accident and criminal conviction. For the third time in six years, LCHS hosted the Every 15 Minutes program, which is designed to discourage teenagers from driving under the influence by presenting them with the hard, and often gory, facts of drunken-driving collisions. The program was funded by a $10,000 state grant, said Assistant Principal Joanne Davidson.

Two people were taken to the hospital Tuesday after a minor traffic accident on Angeles Crest (2) Highway on Tuesday, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officials. Shortly after 11 a.m., a Lexus sedan traveling north on Angeles Crest Highway was struck by small pickup truck turning left onto the highway from Milmada Drive, officials said. Members of the U.S. Forest Service used heavy-equipment trucks to shield the accident victims and their cars from oncoming traffic.

Truck driver Marcos Costa pleaded not guilty when he was arraigned Monday on two counts of vehicular manslaughter stemming from the crash at Angeles Crest and Foothill on April 1. Costa, 43, was released on $200,000 bail on April 5, but has stayed in Los Angeles since for the arraignment. His lawyer, Steve Meister of Los Angeles, said he’ll return to his home in Massachusetts shortly, but will return for the preliminary court hearing on May 13. “This was an accident,” said Meister.

The lessons learned from the La Cañada tragedy can help prevent other accidents across the nation was the message of Congressman David Dreier delivered when he visited with Mayor Laura Olhasso on Friday afternoon. Dreier said after hearing of the accident his first thoughts were of the families affected, and then he got to work on how the federal government could help prevent this type of accident from happening again. "We have the challenge of the GPS [global positioning system]

On Sunday, a motorcyclist collided with a vehicle in an accident on Angeles Crest, near Newcombe Ranch. No injuries were reported. On April 18 at 1:05 p.m., a 61-year-old Los Angeles man lost his life in an accident with another motorcycle. According to CHP, the L.A. man was riding eastbound on Angeles Crest Highway (State Route 2) at an undetermined speed. He crossed the double-yellow lines and collided head-on with the motorcycle driven by a 45-year-old Santa Monica man. Other drivers removed the two victims from the wreckage and began C.P.R.

Film actor Haley Joel Osment, 18, was released from Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, on Friday, July 21 after being involved in a car accident on Thursday, July 20. "Haley has been released from the hospital and is resting comfortably at home," said Meredith Fine, Osment's representative. According to Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Station Sgt. Kristin Aloma, the accident happened on Flintridge Avenue around 1 a.m. July 20. After colliding with the pillar the car hit some bushes then flipped over onto its roof and came to rest on the street, about 100 feet from the pillar.

This week La Cañada High School students acted out some of their worst nightmares, pretending to die in a car accident or get arrested for drunk driving as part of a demonstration put on by a host of local law enforcement and public safety agencies. “Every 15 Minutes” is a traveling show meant to highlight the dangers of driving while impaired. It derives its name from a statistic showing that one person in the United States dies every 15 minutes as a result of an incident involving alcohol.

An attorney who described an unlighted traffic median and the remains of a city welcome sign along Verdugo Boulevard as a roadway hazard is asking city officials to foot the bill for damages sustained after he drove his car into it. Roderick Lipscomb, of La Cañada Flintridge, drove over the median’s curb during a heavy rainstorm on the night on Dec. 20. But just 10 days earlier, a driver who Sheriff’s Department investigators said was...

The big rig driver facing murder charges for the 2009 Angeles Crest Highway truck accident that killed a Palmdale man and his 12-year-old daughter asked a judge on Thursday to act as his own attorney during his upcoming trial. Marcos Barbosa Costa, 45, was expected to decide during the pretrial hearing on Tuesday whether to accept a plea agreement that would have dropped the murder charges in exchange for pleading guilty to manslaughter and reckless driving. But that all changed in Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom in Pasadena after his defense attorney entered a motion to withdraw from the case.

A $1.2 million grant intended to aid the California Highway Patrol in reducing injuries and fatalities from motorcycle accidents has been frozen due to the state budget crisis, officials said this week. The money would have helped increase patrol units and public-safety efforts in four Southern California counties with high motorcycle-accident rates, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange and San Bernardino, said Officer Ming-Yang Hsu. "It was supposed to target counties that were experiencing a high number of motorcycle accidents," Hsu said.

A Montrose woman was killed Tuesday morning after she stepped out of her car on the Foothill (210) Freeway near Ocean View Boulevard and was struck by a passing vehicle. Linda Saunders, 55, had stopped her silver, four-door Volkswagen sedan on the right shoulder of the eastbound 210 Freeway just before the Ocean View Boulevard off ramp, said California Highway Patrol Officer Chris Powell. She exited her vehicle and was in a traffic lane when she was struck at about 5:25 a.m. "It is under investigation," Powell said.

W ith prom just a few days away, La Cañada High School students this week received a sobering lesson about the dangers of drunken driving that included a staged fatal traffic accident and criminal conviction. For the third time in six years, LCHS hosted the Every 15 Minutes program, which is designed to discourage teenagers from driving under the influence by presenting them with the hard, and often gory, facts of drunken-driving collisions. The program was funded by a $10,000 state grant, said Assistant Principal Joanne Davidson.

Two people were taken to the hospital Tuesday after a minor traffic accident on Angeles Crest (2) Highway on Tuesday, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officials. Shortly after 11 a.m., a Lexus sedan traveling north on Angeles Crest Highway was struck by small pickup truck turning left onto the highway from Milmada Drive, officials said. Members of the U.S. Forest Service used heavy-equipment trucks to shield the accident victims and their cars from oncoming traffic.

The nightmare began with screams of alarm from her colleagues. And then Dana McDermott was enveloped in a blinding explosion of debris and paperback novels. ?I was running to find cover,? McDermott said. ?I didn?t know where to go I just remember black and white and dust and books.? As the car carrier slid deeper and deeper into the Flintridge Bookstore and Coffee Shop, the store manager managed to stay on her feet. ?Once everything settled down and I realized I was OK, I ran out the side door, and I started screaming,?

A state appeals court on Tuesday reinstated murder charges against the driver who lost control of his big rig last year, killing two people in La Cañada Flintridge at the base of Angeles Crest Highway. In overturning a lower-court decision to throw out the charges, a panel for the California 2nd District Court of Appeal on Tuesday ruled there was sufficient evidence to suggest that Marcos Barbosa Costa was aware of the “great risk” involved as he drove his five-axle truck down Angeles Crest (2)

Clutching photographs and fighting back tears, 150 people gathered Thursday at Glenola Park in La Cañada Flintridge to mark the one-year anniversary of a fatal traffic accident that took the lives of a 58-year-old Palmdale man and his 12-year-old daughter. Led by Rector Amy Pringle of St. George’s Episcopal Church, La Cañada city officials dedicated a memorial plaque and portion of the park’s rose garden to Angel Jorge Posca, Angelina Posca and the 10 additional people injured in the crash.