Driver Held in Alleged Staging of Fatal Crash : Crime: The motorist is suspected of causing a car-carrier to jackknife on the freeway in Sun Valley in an attempt to collect insurance funds.

The driver of a car crushed by a large truck on the Golden State Freeway in Sun Valley may be charged with murder in the death of a passenger because he is suspected of deliberately causing the accident to collect insurance damages, authorities said Thursday.

Jorge Sanchez, 29, of Los Angeles was arrested and in custody on Thursday on suspicion of causing a car-carrier to jackknife the night before and overturn onto his own car, California Highway Patrol spokesman Richard Obregon said. Jose Perez, 29, of Sepulveda, one of three passengers in Sanchez’s car, was killed in the accident, the coroner’s office said.

“We’re speculating it was a staged collision because witnesses said they saw the driver was slowing and weaving erratically for no apparent reason at all,” Obregon said.

The crash appears to be similar to a series of five staged accidents in the past two months on the same stretch of the Golden State Freeway, Obregon said. Insurance money appears to be the motive for the collisions, he said.

The big truck, loaded with a dozen cars, had been following Sanchez north on the Golden State Freeway just south of the Branford Street exit shortly before 7 p.m. when Sanchez apparently began weaving between lanes, speeding up and slowing, Obregon said. The truck driver, who was not injured in the accident, tried to get away from Sanchez’s car by passing it, but Sanchez apparently swerved into his path, causing the truck to jackknife and overturn onto his car, he said.

Obregon said his office plans to charge Sanchez with staging the accident and that investigators may also recommend that the district attorney’s office charge Sanchez with murder, pending the outcome of an interview with Sanchez.

“Staging this collision is a violation of the state’s insurance code, which is a felony,” Obregon said. “Therefore by committing a felony and causing the death of another person he could be charged with homicide.”

If Sanchez is charged with murder, then the two passengers in his car who survived the crash could be charged as accomplices to the murder, Obregon said. The passengers have been identified as Rubidia Lopez, 28, of Los Angeles, and Isias Martinez, 24, of Los Angeles, he said.

Obregon said Lopez and Martinez gave officers conflicting statements about what happened and that interviewers will interview them again.

CHP Capt. Robert Caldwell said Wednesday’s accident is similar to five other accidents that are also believed to have been staged for insurance money.

The five previous crashes all involved vehicles with four to seven passengers, usually from Central American countries, who claimed major non-visible injuries, Caldwell said. In four of the five accidents, big trucks were involved and most of the accidents happened on the Golden State Freeway near the northern extension of the Hollywood Freeway, he said.

“They’re trying to hit insurance companies for a lot of money,” Caldwell said. “The chances that a big rig truck is fully insured are great,” he said.

Caldwell said CHP officers have been directed to take photographs of victims of any collisions they suspect have been staged.

“They use a different name every time you see them, so we want to be able to identify them,” Caldwell said. CHP officers are investigating whether the driver and passengers in Wednesday’s accident could be connected to any of the earlier collisions.

Obregon said it appears the drivers and passengers involved in the string of accidents are being recruited by one or more parties to stage the collisions and then file insurance claims. A special CHP staged-collision unit has been involved in a six-month investigation of staged collisions throughout Los Angeles County, CHP Officer Susan Mustaffa said. Results of that investigation are expected to be released within two weeks, she said.

The special unit is investigating the Sun Valley accident.