Seven young passengers in the bed of a pickup were killed early Friday when an alleged drunk driver lost control of his car in Commerce and struck the truck, sending it plunging off an elevated freeway into a railroad yard below.
The driver of the car, Sarkis Vartan Peltekian, 31, of Glendale, was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter after the 12:41 a.m. crash on the Long Beach Freeway, the California Highway Patrol said.
The victims in the pickup, six males and a female ranging in age from 14 to 20, were returning to their San Gabriel Valley homes from an outing to "kick back" at the beach, friends said. All were pronounced dead at the scene after they were thrown from the open back of the truck as it hopped the freeway's concrete barrier and fell 40 feet, bouncing off a construction crane before coming to rest in a Union Pacific yard.
The only survivors in the pickup were the driver and a 16-year-old girl seated beside him, both of whom were wearing seat belts. "That most definitely saved their lives," CHP spokesman Glen Dominguez said.
A bill pending in the state Legislature would make it illegal to ride on a highway in the back of a pickup, a practice that has been linked to dozens of fatal crashes in the state every year. Friday's crash was the second to claim the lives of teen-agers in the Southland in two weeks.
A similar measure was vetoed by Gov. Pete Wilson in 1991, the same year a pickup accident claimed the lives of eight Contra Costa County youths.
The two survivors from the pickup struck Friday were listed in fair condition at County-USC Medical Center. Peltekian, meanwhile, was reported in stable condition with unspecified injuries at the hospital's jail ward, where he was being held on $20,000 bail pending arraignment next week, Sheriff's Department officials said.
Friends and relatives gathered throughout the day at the county coroner's office to identify the dead and demand punishment for the accused drunk driver.
"He killed seven innocent lives, all because of his stupidity," said Martha Lopez of La Puente, mourning her 14-year-old son, Gerardo. "I want him in jail."
A sobbing Patricia Lozoya, 16, said one victim was her cousin and another--Victor Carsi, 18, of Baldwin Park--her fiance and father of her 4-month-old daughter. "And he died. He died. I can't believe it," she said. " . . . We were going to get married as soon as we got the money."
