Accidental Deaths Los Angeles County

Najee Ali, the head of Project Islamic Hope, took a Greyhound bus from Crenshaw to Palmdale on Monday to hold a small but fiery news conference on the steps of the Palmdale School District headquarters. Ali is pressuring school officials to expel a white student involved in a middle school fistfight Nov. 19 that led to a black student's death.

A construction supervisor was killed at a Port of Los Angeles work site Thursday morning when a cable snapped aboard a construction crane and its boom came crashing down upon him. David Pollock, 48, who flew out for the job from his home in Cleveland, was apparently standing beneath the boom when the accident occurred about 9:30 a.m. He had been motioning for the crane operator to lower it slowly.

Accidents: First incident claims life of Canoga Park infant. Later, a child is pulled from a Reseda pool. An infant died and a toddler was in extremely critical condition Thursday in two separate back yard water accidents in the West Valley, authorities said. At 4:50 p.m., a 13-month-old boy drowned in a spa behind his family's house in the 22000 block of Covello Street in Canoga Park, according to Sgt. Dan Mastro of the Los Angeles Police Department.

In an effort to avoid an accident, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies had just backed off from a relatively low-speed chase when the suspect sped up, ran a red light and crashed into another car in Lakewood, killing a couple and their 2-year-old son, officials said Saturday.

A Palmdale woman was killed Tuesday in Los Angeles after she crashed her car on the Santa Monica Freeway, walked outside of it and was hit by a passing vehicle, according to authorities. The victim was Louise Riley, 60, according to authorities. The accident occurred at about 5 a.m. on the westbound portion of the freeway just east of Crenshaw Boulevard, said Officer Richard Perez, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol.

A man who sheriff's deputies suspect was trying to steal cable from a telephone pole was electrocuted near the intersection of 50th Street East and Avenue E. Deputies discovered his body in the street about 2:25 p.m. Sunday. The name of the man, who authorities said was in his 30s, was not released pending notification of relatives. "There is no foul play suspected," said Det. Steve Davis of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Two men were killed early Sunday when their Porsche went out of control on a curve along Pacific Coast Highway near Pacific Palisades. The car, driven by Jean Brilanger, 43, was headed north when it crossed the roadway and crashed into a lamppost near Portofino Way about 2:50 a.m., police said. Also killed was Brilanger's passenger, Christopher Wheat, 27, of Chatsworth, who authorities say was being transported home from a hospital after being treated for a head injury.

A mother and daughter on their way to the mother's housecleaning job died Friday morning after their car spun out of control on a rain-slick street and was broadsided by a pickup truck, police said. The accident that killed Silvia Garibay Funez, 28, and her 8-year-old daughter, Viridiana Funez, occurred around 7 a.m. on Roscoe Boulevard west of Shoup Avenue, a time that the third-grade girl typically would be getting ready for school at Napa Street Elementary.

An elderly woman was killed Tuesday afternoon after her car ran a red light at the intersection of Devonshire Street and Wilbur Avenue, causing another car to run into the driver's side of the woman's vehicle, Los Angeles police said. The woman who died in the Northridge crash has been identified as 94-year-old Florence Weins. The driver of the second vehicle, whose identity has not been released, was taken to a local hospital. Police said that driver complained of injuries.

A Sun Valley construction worker plunged to his death Monday morning when his tractor toppled over a local rock quarry cliff into a pool of water more than 150 feet below. Jose Gomez, 25, of Pico Rivera, was pushing heavy equipment up a steep narrow road when the embankment underneath one of his tractor wheels suddenly crumbled, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.