Driver, 12, Dies, Second Youth Hurt as Crash Ends Joy Ride

The car in which two boys were taking a joy ride through Sunland early Tuesday flipped over, killing the 12-year-old driver and seriously injuring his 13-year-old passenger, the son of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, police said.

The injured youth had taken his father’s car without permission, police said.

Michael Way of Sunland was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Lt. Nils Linder of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

The 13-year-old boy, who was airlifted to Los Angeles Childrens Hospital, was in surgery in serious but stable condition Tuesday afternoon, hospital spokeswoman Maria Iacobo said. The boy had a cut forehead and a broken left wrist.

Police would not identify the boy, saying they are investigating whether to file criminal charges against him. “Obviously, you have two male juveniles out in a vehicle, so that aspect is under investigation,” Police Lt. John Dunkin said.

The boy’s father, who works in the Lost Hills sheriff’s station, was not on duty at the time of the crash, Sheriff’s Lt. Jim Glazar said.

About 2:15 a.m., the boys attracted the attention of two Foothill Division patrol officers when they sped through an intersection at Foothill Boulevard and Langmuir Avenue and zoomed over a dip in the road, with the bottom of the car scraping the pavement and spewing sparks.

The patrol car pursued the vehicle west on Foothill for about a minute but gave up the chase when they lost sight of the car and determined that the wet road made further pursuit unsafe.

Pamela Pitcher, a probationary officer, and her partner, Officer Lisa Gallegos, estimated that the boys were driving in excess of 80 m.p.h.

Soon after the car rounded a turn and pulled out of the officers’ sight, they saw sparks in the night sky.

The car had apparently plowed head-on into a power pole on Sunland Boulevard, struck a low concrete block wall, crashed through 60 feet of a chain-link fence and careened off a parked pickup truck, landing upside-down, Los Angeles Police Lt. Charlie Kunz said.

At a news conference at Parker Center, Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Martin Pomeroy said the officers acted according to department regulations when they called off the chase for safety reasons.

Pomeroy said the officers could not tell during the chase that the occupants were youngsters. But that would not have changed the pursuit policy, he said.

Times staff writer Hugo Martin contributed to this report.