NORTH HILLS (CNS) – An 18-year-old drunken motorist, speeding away from
California Highway Patrol officers, plowed through a red light at an offramp
and killed a motorcycle rider in North Hills overnight, CHP officers said
today.
The crash was on Nordhoff Street at the exit from the southbound San
Diego (405) Freeway at 10:30 p.m. Friday, according to a crash report from the
California Highway Patrol.
Two CHP officers on patrol said they saw a driver, later identified as
Cristian Alexander, of Sylmar, speeding in a 2007 Kia southbound on the 405.
They activated their patrol vehicle’s emergency lights in order to conduct an
enforcement stop of the Sylmar resident’s vehicle.
Alexander, still speeding, got off the freeway at the Nordhoff Street
exit and applied his brakes in an attempt to slow down just prior to the
intersection, the CHP report said. He was unable to stop and continued out of
control from the offramp through the intersection.
A westbound motorcycle emerged form the underpass and the Kia smashed
into it.
The car continued through the intersection and struck a traffic signal
pole. It came to a stop on the south side of Nordhoff Street near the 405
Freeway southbound onramp.
Arriving paramedics pronounced the motorcyclist, a 56-year-old man from
Sylmar, dead at the scene. His name was not immediately released.
Alexander and his passenger, a 21-year-old man from Sylmar, were taken
to North Hills Hospital with minor injuries. Alexander was later arrested on
suspicion of drunken driving and booked into the Van Nuys jail.
Under state law, charges such as vehicular homicide can be filed by
prosecutors after they get the crash report from CHP investigators.