Truck Bed

An 11-year-old Mission Hills girl sitting in the bed of a pickup truck was killed when she was ejected and struck by another vehicle in the carpool lane of the Ronald Reagan Freeway, authorities said Monday. The driver of the pickup truck, 38-year-old Maria Diaz of Lancaster, swerved to avoid hitting an object in the road Sunday night and lost control, hitting a raised median, said California Highway Patrol Officer Michael Curtin.

An 11-year-old Mission Hills girl sitting in the bed of a pickup truck was killed when she was ejected and struck by another vehicle in the carpool lane of the Ronald Reagan Freeway, authorities said Monday. The driver of the pickup truck, 38-year-old Maria Diaz of Lancaster, swerved to avoid hitting an object in the road Sunday night, then lost control and hit a median, said Officer Michael Curtin of the California Highway Patrol.

A 24-year-old sailor was killed early Sunday when the truck he was driving ran off Pacific Coast Highway. The sailor, who was not identified, drowned. He was also severely burned, Deputy Coroner Zelmira Isaac said. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:25 a.m., coroner's investigator Jim Wingate said. A passenger in the truck, Gregory Bennett, 27, was taken to St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, where he was treated and released, authorities said.

Astolen pickup truck with a device containing low-level radioactive material was found abandoned Thursday night near Sylmar, the Los Angeles Police Department reported. The material, encased in a thick steel cage, had not leaked, authorities said. Police and firefighters temporarily closed off a three-block area around the site where the red Mazda was found, at Alexander Street and Gladstone Avenue in the Sylmar Square area. There was no threat to residents, and there were no plans for an evacuation, Los Angeles Fire Department Assistant Chief Allan Schroeder said.

This is all coming a little too late for Jose Nunoz. A few Saturdays ago, the 19-year-old from Orange was riding in the back of a pickup truck with a buddy. The hour was edging toward midnight. Three others were stuffed in the truck's cab. As they whistled along the twisting asphalt of Santiago Canyon Road toward Irvine Lake, the pickup's driver got brave and pulled around a slowpoke to pass. Ablaze with urgency, the headlights of an onrushing car ignited the night.

The driver of an overloaded pickup truck that crashed last year near Barstow, killing 12 of the 20 people on board, was convicted Thursday of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and now faces a maximum 13-year prison term. The March 9, 1994, crash was the worst ever in California involving a single, private vehicle. The 1981 Toyota pickup drifted off Interstate 15 and plowed into a dirt culvert after the driver, Wenndover Ordonez, 24, fell asleep.

A stolen truck filled with suspected illegal immigrants speeding away from deputies rolled over at a busy intersection near an Army post Saturday, causing an 11-car crash that killed six people and seriously injured 15, sheriff's officials said. Passengers were thrown out of the truck bed as the truck hit a center median and began to spiral, hitting vehicles waiting at a turn lane, said Deputy Chief Randy Redmond of the Sierra Vista Fire Department.

Dear Street Smart: Do you know if there are any plans to improve the lane markings along Beach Boulevard between Imperial Highway and Whittier Boulevard in La Habra? The boulevard is marked for two lanes in each direction, but the right lane is so wide that drivers treat it as if it were two and sometimes three lanes. It is very confusing and dangerous. You never know when someone will go ahead and decide there is enough room to pass you on the right.

Beneath harsh fluorescent bulbs in a shopping center parking lot, the Desirable Ones gather for a night of punishment. The Huntington Park mini-truck club did well at a recent car show, taking first and second places in an event called "bed-dancing." But when Armando Nunez calls the weekly meeting to order, he isn't smiling. "You're getting lazy. Because of you, we looked sad," the club president tells six sober-faced young men who, despite promises to attend, missed the show.