Accident

First of three parts Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments. But as a single mother with three children, bad credit and a $27,000-a-year salary, she couldn't find a bank or dealership willing to give her a loan. Then a friend steered her to Repossess Auto Sales in Hawthorne. Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered.

A man was recovering Monday after a fight in a Dodger Stadium parking lot following Sunday's game, renewing questions about how quickly and effectively security responds once a game ends. The fight began about 9 p.m. after a minor traffic accident. According to Los Angeles police, Arthur Morales, 30, knocked the victim to the ground while his pregnant girlfriend watched, stunned. At that point, Morales' friends got out of the vehicle and joined in. "They held the victim down on the ground and ... the fourth one kicked and punched him in the head," LAPD Cmdr.

Auto leasing deals abound these days, with offers that often seem too good to be true. How about a well-equipped Honda Accord for $250 a month with no down payment or any other drive-off fees? Or better yet, $199 a month for a Chevrolet Malibu? So, what's the catch? There isn't any if you know what you're getting into. There are always details. You need top-tier credit to qualify. You pay a penalty if you turn that Honda in with more than 36,000 miles. And the payment is not $250 a month because of that little matter of tax. It is more like $275, depending on where you live.

TheU.S. Coast Guardhas temporarily suspended offshore yacht racing in the San Francisco Bay Area after an accident earlier this month killed five of eight crew members near the rugged Farallon Islands. At least two races, one scheduled for Saturday, will be rerouted while US Sailing -  the sport's national governing body - conducts an independent review of Bay Area offshore racing procedures.  Coast Guard officials said they also were  "calling on all offshore race organizers and participants to conduct their own safety stand-downs during this period.

Bob Brickman spent months fighting a ticket he got last fall from a red-light traffic camera at Wilshire and Sepulveda boulevards in West Los Angeles. The 61-year-old from Playa Vista eventually decided to give up the fight and fork over the $476 fine. Now he's regretting paying every penny. City officials this week spotlighted a surprising revelation involving red-light camera tickets: Authorities cannot force violators who simply don't respond to pay them. For a variety of reasons, including the way the law was written, Los Angeles officials say the fines for ticketed motorists are essentially "voluntary" and there are virtually no tangible consequences for those who refuse to pay. The disclosure comes as the city is considering whether to drop the controversial photo enforcement program, with the City Council scheduled to vote on the matter Wednesday.

Lamar Odom's voice on the phone frequently was barely above a whisper. The pain clearly registered in words that flowed in stops and starts as he delivered a soliloquy about death and the effect it has had on his psyche. The Lakers forward spoke deliberately and expressed how emotional it has been for him to deal with two recent deaths. Odom attended a funeral in New York on July 13 for his 24-year-old cousin, who Odom said was murdered. The next day, Odom was a passenger in an SUV in Queens when it collided with a motorcycle.

Bob Kahl slips in through a side door of the vast, abandoned hangar and looks at what's left of the assembly plant where he worked for nearly 40 years. He remembers the hum of power tools, the biting aroma of cutting oil, swarms of workers plugging away on a labyrinth of yellow scaffolding. All that's left is a few piles of broken concrete and a sea of colorless dust that coats a Palmdale factory floor the size of two football fields. "Welcome to the birthplace of America's space shuttle fleet," said Kahl, 60, smiling.

They were both working-class girls from Southern California immigrant families. One was of Vietnamese heritage, the other Mexican. One was reserved, the other vivacious. Both surmounted hardships to graduate from UCLA and be admitted to prestigious East Coast universities for graduate studies. And both shared a particular passion: a commitment to assist undocumented students like themselves attend college, attain legal status and escape the shadow existence of illegal immigrants.

Lamar Odom is done playing for the Dallas Mavericks. Will any other NBA team take a chance on the enigmatic 6-foot-10 forward who is less than a year removed from winning the league's sixth man of the year award? Or perhaps the better question is, should someone give him another shot? Odom was known for his inconsistency during his seven seasons with the Lakers. But, by definition, that means there were good and bad times on the court for Odom in L.A. And particularly in the last few years, there seemed to be more good than bad, with Odom appearing to pull it all together last season by being named the league's best player off the bench.

Miles Teller almost died a few years ago. After spending a few days at a Connecticut music festival, he and two buddies were road tripping home to Florida. Cruising down the highway at 75 mph, Teller's friend tried to switch lanes and nearly hit another vehicle. He jerked the steering wheel back but lost control of the car, which went across three lanes of traffic, into a grass median, and flipped seven times. Teller was thrown 25 feet and awoke covered in blood. "I still have two rocks in my face," the boyish 23-year-old actor said, showing off scars on his chin, neck and shoulder.

Members of the U.S. military — especially enlisted troops in the Army and Marines — were significantly more likely to cause auto accidents within six months of returning from deployment, according to a study by USAA Property and & Casualty Insurance Group, a major insurer for military families. These veterans probably are engaging in survival driving habits for a war zone, such as not stopping in traffic, driving fast and making sudden, unpredictable turns, experts said. But those same driving practices create havoc back in the United States.

Since she won four medals at the 2008 Olympics, including a gold in the balance beam, Shawn Johnson has retired from her sport, written a book, won the mirror ball trophy on "Dancing With the Stars," torn up her knee while skiing and had reconstructive surgery. Oh, yeah, and she's doing gymnastics again. Johnson, 20, who came to the Beijing Games as defending world all-around champion and Olympic favorite, accepted her silver all-around medal, one rung below American teammate Nastia Liukin, with both a smile and tears.

Call it the sinkhole tumble heard around the Web. A teenage girl in north China was walking down the sidewalk while talking on her cellphone when she fell -- suddenly and without warning -- into a sinkhole 20 feet deep. The fall was captured by security cameras stationed near the sinkhole, and video of the girl falling through the sidewalk has been making its way around the Internet. Academic studies have shown that pedestrians are less aware of their environment and more prone to engaging in unsafe behaviors when they are talking on a cellphone.

  Lakers forward Metta World Peace delivered a blow to the side of the head of Oklahoma City guard James Harden that earned him a flagrant-two foul and an immediate ejection. A suspension of one game or more is likely. World Peace, who had 12 points late in the second quarter following his third dunk of the game, pounded his chest alternately with both fists. Then, as Harden was moving toward the baseline, World Peace swung his left arm above his shoulder and struck Harden in the left side of his head, sending the Thunder guard crashing to the court.

SAN FRANCISCO — The winds gusted above 25 knots and the swells topped 12 feet. In short, sailors participating in this year's race around the craggy Farallon Islands, 27 miles west of the Golden Gate, faced typically grueling conditions. Then something went terribly wrong. A rogue wave pummeled the 38-foot Low Speed Chase as it rounded the islands Saturday, knocking five crew members overboard. As the captain sought to rescue them from the 50-degree water, the boat capsized and was hurled onto the rocks.

Arkansas fired football Coach Bobby Petrino on Tuesday, saying he engaged in reckless behavior that included hiring his mistress and then intentionally misleading his bosses about their relationship and her presence at the motorcycle accident that ultimately cost him his job. "He made the decision to mislead the public, [and it] adversely affected the university and the football program," Athletic Director Jeff Long said at an evening news conference, choking up at one point as he discussed telling players the news.

Knott's Berry Farm has agreed to a financial settlement with the family of a 12-year-old boy who was seriously injured during a 2009 accident on the Xcelerator roller coaster. "There's a confidential settlement," said Art Morgan, the family's attorney. "We can't say the amount. " A Knott's spokesperson declined to comment on the settlement. Kyle Wheeler was sitting in the front row of Xcelerator when the roller coaster's launch cable snapped, whipped toward the riders and split the fiberglass car in half.

A woman crossing the road during the Tour de France was killed Saturday when she was hit by a police motorcycle escorting riders. Two spectators were injured after the motorcycle skidded into them. The accident happened in the early afternoon in Wittelsheim in eastern France during the 14th stage, a 124-mile route from Colmar to Besancon. A few breakaway riders had just come through the town center, Tour organizers said. Organizers identified the victim as a 61-year-old woman.

Benjamin Franklin once said there are two certainties in life: death and taxes. Now, researchers have found that taxes might make death just a little more certain. Deaths from traffic accidents rise 6% on tax day, that mid-April paroxysm of collective financial agony, according to a study published in Wednesday's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Assn. A pair of Canadian researchers tallied up U.S. tax day traffic fatalities for each year between 1980 and 2009, then compared the figures to those from two "control" days, exactly one week before and one week after.

Bobby Petrino was hurt in a motorcycle crash Sunday night, but the 51-year-old Arkansas football coach is listed in stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery, according to a statement released by his family Monday morning. Petrino crashed his motorcycle after veering off a highway near the town of Crosses in Madison County, Ark., and was taken to a hospital for treatment, state police said. Zack Higbee, a spokesman for Petrino, had no comment on the accident Monday and would not even say if Petrino was involved.