Accident Victims

Today's anniversary of the Chatsworth Metrolink disaster will yank again at the emotional tear in the tightly woven fabric of the Hefter family. Bright, full of potential and the baby of the house, Jacob Hefter was barely 18 -- and one of the youngest to die that Friday afternoon. Since those frantic first hours after the crash, Alan and Angela Hefter and their two surviving sons have struggled to adapt to life with a vital missing part. "The family you had prior to Sept.

A Hawthorne driver who struck a 72-year-old pedestrian, forced the woman into her car and sped off has been sentenced to state prison, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said Wednesday. Alexis Lewis, 27, got a five-year term after pleading no contest to one count of kidnapping. As a result of the May 26 plea bargain, one count of felony evading police and three counts of child endangerment were dismissed at the sentencing. Earlier that month, Lewis left her three children -- ages 2, 3 and 4 -- unattended at home and set off in her car. After hitting the woman at a Hawthorne intersection, Lewis stopped briefly, got out and pushed the woman into her car and drove off. As Lewis sped away, an undercover police officer arrived and notified other officers.

Relatives and neighbors of a 10-year-old South Gate boy who was struck and killed in a crosswalk Saturday called on city officials to install more safety devices at the busy intersection. Ricardo Mercado was killed while crossing Tweedy Boulevard at San Vincente Avenue with his mother and two sisters at 11:24 a.m. They were on their way home after buying Popsicles at a nearby store. A woman driving a Volkswagen SUV was making a left turn from San Vincente Avenue onto Tweedy Boulevard when she struck the family, said Sgt. Tim Williams of the South Gate Police Department.

The message of the proposed freeway signs doesn't seem controversial, memorializing individuals killed in traffic accidents and urging California motorists to drive safely. But a proposal to allow families to pay the California Department of Transportation to put up dozens of such signs along state highways has been caught up in a revolt by environmentalists against what they see as the growing clutter of signs and billboards along California roadways. The latest flare-up involves plans to expand a program that allows families to pay $1,000 to cover the cost of signs that read, "Please Don't Drink and Drive -- In Memory of . . ."

Brazilian military officials announced Saturday that they had found two bodies and some debris from the Paris-bound Air France flight that disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean with 228 passengers and crew aboard. Two male bodies, a leather briefcase containing an Air France boarding pass, a numbered blue seat and a nylon backpack were fished out of the ocean about 400 miles northeast of the Fernando de Noronha archipelago off Brazil's northern coast, Col.

Relatives waited in anguish for word of their loved ones late Monday after officials said there was little hope of finding any survivors of the Air France jetliner carrying 228 people that disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean. The Airbus A330 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris flew into a wall of tropical thunderstorms, encountering heavy turbulence and experiencing an electrical failure, shortly before disappearing Monday morning, authorities said.

One passenger was killed and 27 were injured when a shuttle bus carrying employees of an upscale mountain resort crashed Saturday morning on the main highway through the Sierra Nevada. The bus, operated by the Resort at Squaw Creek, was traveling west on Interstate 80 when it veered to the right, said Officer Steve Skeen of the California Highway Patrol.

A helicopter returning from a North Sea oil platform went down off the northeast coast of Scotland with 16 people on board, and police said at least eight were killed. Scotland's Grampian Police said eight bodies had been recovered from the sea and that the search for the other passengers was continuing. A spokesman for the BP oil company said the helicopter was working for the company and was returning to Britain from an offshore oil field.

Los Angeles police are trying to find an ambulance driver who ran over and killed a man who was sleeping in a driveway. Police asked for the public's help Wednesday to track down the driver involved in the March 26 incident. A witness told police that 45-year-old David Ronald Bork was sleeping in the rear driveway of a business when a private ambulance struck him. Bork died at the scene of extensive head trauma. Police say there might have been a passenger in the ambulance.

Two women were killed and a man critically injured Tuesday when they were struck by a vehicle in a crosswalk, authorities said. Sgt. Chris Tatar of the West Hollywood sheriff's station said at least two cars were involved in the accident, which occurred at 6:24 p.m. near the corner of Fountain and La Brea avenues, on the border of West Hollywood and Los Angeles. After colliding with another vehicle, one car continued along Fountain and struck the pedestrians in the crosswalk, Tatar said.