Accident Death

In violation of departmental code, Long Beach Police Officer Karl D. Simons was driving at an "excessive speed" moments before he died in a freeway crash last October, according to a California Highway Patrol investigation released Monday. The 26-year-old Fullerton resident was driving between 106 and 116 mph on the Long Beach Freeway in response to a call of a car theft, according to the 150-page report. The four-year officer was killed instantly Oct.

Breaking with a long-standing unwritten policy, President Obama announced Wednesday that he would send condolence letters to families of military service members who commit suicide or die of an accident in a combat zone. "This issue is emotional, painful and complicated, but these Americans served our nation bravely," Obama said of the suicide deaths in a statement. "They didn't die because they are weak. And the fact that they didn't get the help they needed must change. " The White House said the decision to alter the long-standing practice of honoring only combat deaths came after "a difficult and exhaustive review of the former policy.

Breaking with a long-standing unwritten policy, President Obama announced Wednesday that he would send condolence letters to families of military service members who commit suicide or die of an accident in a combat zone. "This issue is emotional, painful and complicated, but these Americans served our nation bravely," Obama said of the suicide deaths in a statement. "They didn't die because they are weak. And the fact that they didn't get the help they needed must change. " The White House said the decision to alter the long-standing practice of honoring only combat deaths came after "a difficult and exhaustive review of the former policy.

Authorities lowered to five the death toll from a weekend crash of a stolen pickup truck filled with undocumented immigrants. Authorities initially reported six deaths in the crash Saturday near the Army's Ft. Huachuca that caused an 11-car pileup, but one victim who apparently went into cardiac arrest while being taken to a hospital was resuscitated, said Sgt. Brian Preston. He said investigators haven't identified the driver.

One day in October, six members of a skydiving team were gliding toward a normal landing on a typical practice jump when they heard the yell. Above them, two members of the team had become entangled. Their canopies collapsed and the pair plunged to the ground with no time to trip their backup parachutes. Less than a week later, witnesses watched helplessly as another veteran skydiver spun out of control, deploying his backup chute too late to soften the fatal fall.

Authorities lowered to five the death toll from a weekend crash of a stolen pickup truck filled with undocumented immigrants. Authorities initially reported six deaths in the crash Saturday near the Army's Ft. Huachuca that caused an 11-car pileup, but one victim who apparently went into cardiac arrest while being taken to a hospital was resuscitated, said Sgt. Brian Preston. He said investigators haven't identified the driver.

A Hollywood man found guilty last month of manslaughter for killing three people when his speeding car crashed into theirs was sentenced Wednesday to 16 years and eight months in prison. Aram Barsumyan, 30, a Soviet Armenian emigre, was convicted of three counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and four other felony charges in connection with a Dec. 19, 1987, crash on Los Feliz Boulevard.

A Van Nuys woman who swerved her SUV into the path of a van for developmentally disabled adults almost a year ago pleaded guilty Thursday to vehicular manslaughter. Bonnie Yvonne Lee, 29, faces four years in state prison as part of a plea agreement, said the county district attorney's office. On May 23, 2002, Lee's SUV lurched in front of a van owned by the Tierra del Sol Foundation. Employee Tauheedah Brown, 25, and client Robert Hawthorne, 38, were killed.

A Glendale driver has been arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter after fleeing the scene of an accident in which one person died, authorities said Sunday. Raul A. Rosales, 21, was arrested Saturday in connection with the death of his passenger, Jose Cruz Jacquez, 24, of Glendale, said Officer Monty Keifer of the California Highway Patrol.

Eleven people died in highway accidents in Los Angeles County over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, three more than last year, the California Highway Patrol reported Monday. Statewide, the death toll was 60, up from 41 last year, CHP Officer Tito Gomez said. The official holiday weekend counting period that began at 6 p.m. Wednesday ended at midnight Sunday. Arrests for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol were down, the CHP said.

Drowsy drivers can be as lethal on the road as anyone who takes the wheel after drinking or breaks the speed limit. The issue of sleepy drivers has always taken a back seat to campaigns against drunk driving and concern over speeding. But safety advocates and lawmakers alarmed by the number of accidents caused by tired drivers say this issue is finally getting the attention it deserves.

A Van Nuys woman who swerved her SUV into the path of a van for developmentally disabled adults almost a year ago pleaded guilty Thursday to vehicular manslaughter. Bonnie Yvonne Lee, 29, faces four years in state prison as part of a plea agreement, said the county district attorney's office. On May 23, 2002, Lee's SUV lurched in front of a van owned by the Tierra del Sol Foundation. Employee Tauheedah Brown, 25, and client Robert Hawthorne, 38, were killed.

No one disputes that Alberto Sepulveda was doing exactly as he was told in the seconds after a police SWAT team burst into his family's home early on the morning of Sept. 13. As officers rounded up his father, mother and brother, the 11-year-old quickly complied with orders to lie face down, arms outstretched, on the floor beside his bed.

Snow, sleet and rain spread across sections of the East on Sunday as a storm raced to the Atlantic from the middle of the nation, where Missouri got nearly 2 feet of snow. By afternoon, a band of snow, sleet and freezing rain arced from Arkansas and Missouri across the Ohio Valley into the mountains of West Virginia and Pennsylvania. About 23 inches of snow fell from Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning in southwestern Missouri's Barry County.

A female pedestrian was struck and killed by a Blue Line commuter train in South Los Angeles on Thursday morning, just 12 hours after a tow truck and another MTA train collided in the area. One man died and 17 were injured in that crash. The woman, whose name was being held pending notification of next of kin, was hit about 10:30 a.m. by a southbound train traveling about 25 mph as it was approaching the station near Vernon, said LAPD spokeswoman Carol Mitchell.

In violation of departmental code, Long Beach Police Officer Karl D. Simons was driving at an "excessive speed" moments before he died in a freeway crash last October, according to a California Highway Patrol investigation released Monday. The 26-year-old Fullerton resident was driving between 106 and 116 mph on the Long Beach Freeway in response to a call of a car theft, according to the 150-page report. The four-year officer was killed instantly Oct.

If your children are between training wheels and their first car, the bicycle is part of your most frightening nightmare. Bikes are more than a toy for a youngster. They also represent independence. When we buy a bicycle for our children and watch them pedal away, we are setting them free to enter the outside world and learn from their mistakes. And we say a silent prayer that they don't make the ultimate mistake--like a 9-year-old Mission Viejo boy did in March of last year. The U.S.

A 34-year-old Solana Beach man who is being held without bail in connection with the hit-and-run death of popular Rancho Santa Fe physician has a history of drunk-driving charges and has had his driver's license suspended twice since 1985, state Department of Motor Vehicles records indicate. Jeffrey A. Hinrichs, 34, of the 300 block of Barbara Avenue in Solana Beach, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of felony vehicular manslaughter.

An 81-year-old Pasadena man was killed Monday morning on California 126 after his vehicle drifted off the road and smashed into a parked Caltrans steamroller. The man, whose identity was not released pending notification of his relatives, is the ninth person to die on the state highway in the past four weeks, officials said.

A 16-year-old San Juan Capistrano youth apparently drowned Sunday while snorkeling and spearfishing with a friend near Seal Rock offshore of Crescent Bay, lifeguards said. The boy, Christopher William Cvengros, was found floating face down at 12:30 p.m., about a half-hour after his companion, who is also 16, reported him missing, said Kevin Snow, a Laguna Beach city lifeguard. Cvengros was an experienced diver and it was unclear what led to his death, Snow said.