Car Hits Truck, Jumps Curb; 1 Killed, 5 Hurt

One transient was killed and five others injured outside a downtown Los Angeles homeless mission Saturday when they were struck by a hit-and-run driver whose car collided with a tomato truck and then careened onto the sidewalk, authorities said.

The accident occurred at about 8:30 a.m. while the transients were either sleeping or sitting outside the Fred Jordan Mission at 445 Towne Ave., said Sgt. Jeff Siggers of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Central Traffic Division.

Siggers said the male driver of a white 1975 Chevrolet Monte Carlo tried to squeeze past the big-rig truck, which was making a right turn from Towne Avenue to 5th Street.

The car bounced off the truck and jumped the curb, striking the transients as they sat on the 5th Street side of the Skid Row shelter, Siggers said.

Steven Myers, a shelter worker, said he saw the collision, and ran to the corner just after the car struck the transients.

“They didn’t have time to do nothing,” Myers said. “They were just screaming, just screaming. They were just laying there, in shock.”

By the time he reached the car, Myers said, the driver had fled, along with an unknown number of passengers. Police recovered the car at the scene, and said there were as many as four people in the car.

Sgt. Tom Hatter of Central Traffic Division said detectives are investigating the case to determine who was at fault. He said the car’s driver faces possible manslaughter and felony hit-and-run charges.

The names of the three male and two female victims were not released. One man was pronounced dead at County-USC Medical Center at about noon, Siggers said.

Two of the other victims were seriously injured, one with a crushed pelvis and the other with a broken leg.