Author name: C-CAR

LA VERNE >> Road rage on the 210 Freeway led to a fistfight and a three-car collision in La Verne on Tuesday, authorities said.

Police received a call of a fistfight at Foothill Boulevard and Wheeler Avenue around 10:20 a.m., police Lt. Thomas Frayeh said.

A couple minutes later, police received a call of a three-car collision at Foothill and White Avenue.

“It appears there may have been a road rage incident on the freeway” that triggered the events, Frayeh said.

The two drivers allegedly exited the freeway at Foothill and got into the fistfight, he said. The second party struck the first driver, then got in the car and drove away, Frayeh said.

The first driver got in his car and then drove through several red lights on Foothill trying to catch up to the second party, before crashing into the back of a car stopped at a red light at Foothill and White. That car then struck another vehicle, resulting in the three-car crash, Frayeh said.

The first driver had injuries consistent with the fistfight and the other two victims complained of pain.

No further information was available.

Three people were injured when a automobile fleeing Ontario police crashed into several cars at a Rancho Cucamonga intersection, police said.

Rancho deputies closed sections of Foothill Boulevard and Hermosa Avenue as the station’s Major Accident Investigation Team responded to the crash site, according to Teresa McMahon, a spokeswoman for the Rancho Cucamonga sheriff’s station.

None of the injuries are life-threatening, according to Ontario police Cpl. Fred Alvarez.

The pursuit started about 3 p.m. near Euclid Avenue and California Street when a traffic officer attempted to pull over a white Ford Mustang for a traffic code violation, Alvarez said. It was unclear what traffic code the driver allegedly violated.

The man wheeling the Mustang blew through several stops signs and a red light and drove on the wrong side of the road as he headed northeast into Rancho Cucamonga, according to Alvarez.

About six minutes after the pursuit began, the Mustang and five other vehicles — none of which were police cars — were involved in the crash at Foothill and Hermosa.

The man who fled police and two others were transported to hospitals. No information about the driver, other than his gender, was available Wednesday evening.

Police are attempting to determine if the man was impaired because they found drug paraphernalia in the Mustang, Alvarez said.

MEDAN, Indonesia >> The death toll from the crash of an air force transport plane in Indonesia jumped to more than 140 on Wednesday, as officials confirmed a bigger-than-previously-reported passenger list and a growing number of victims from the neighborhood where the plane went down.

North Sumatra police major A. Tarigan told TVOne that 141 bodies have been recovered from the rubble of a residential area in Medan city where the C-130 Hercules crashed shortly after takeoff on Tuesday. The death toll was 74 overnight.

The air force says 122 people were on board, including military personnel and their families. Officials don’t expect any survivors from the plane.

Initially, the air force had said only 12 crew were on the plane but had not said how many else were on it. It then repeatedly raised the numbers of passengers, indicating lax controls and raising questions whether it was accepting paying passengers despite previous promises to crack down on the practice. Hitching rides on military planes to reach remote destinations is common in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago that spans three time zones.

The crash of the aircraft, which had been in service since 1964, occurred only two minutes after it took off from Soewondo air force base in Medan on Sumatra, one of Indonesia’s main islands. It plowed into a building that local media said contained shops and homes.

Witnesses said flames and smoke streamed from the plane before it crashed. Air force chief Air Marshal Agus Supriatna said the pilot told the control tower that he needed to turn back because of engine trouble and that the plane crashed while turning right to return to the airport.

The plane had traveled from the capital, Jakarta, and stopped at two locations before arriving at Medan.

Outside Adam Malik hospital in Medan, coffins were arranged in several rows. Officers wearing face masks and white gloves carried coffins with bodies that had been identified to trucks for transport to families.

A backhoe has been digging at the pile of smoldering concrete where the plane crashed. The tail of the plane still stands in the middle of the neighborhood.

Indonesia has a patchy civil aviation safety record and its cash-strapped air force has suffered a series of accidents. Between 2007 and 2009, the European Union barred Indonesian airlines from flying to Europe because of safety worries.

The country’s most recent civilian airline disaster was in December, when an AirAsia jet with 162 people on board crashed into the Java Sea en route from Surabaya to Singapore. There have been five fatal crashes involving air force planes since 2008, according to the Aviation Safety Network, which tracks aviation disasters.

___

AP writers Stephen Wright and Ali Kotarumalos contributed to this story from Jakarta.

ALTADENA >> Coroner’s officials on Monday identified the motorcyclist killed in a crash on Angeles Crest Highway as a 27-year-old Jeffrey Yamato of Alta Loma.

Ed Winter, assistant chief of investigations and operations for the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner, said Yamato died at the scene . The autopsy is pending.

The fatal crash occurred just after 8:20 a.m. Sunday at mile marker 36.89 on Angeles Crest Highway.

The motorcycle was heading eastbound when it crossed over into the opposing lane and collided with a 2001 GMC Yukon XL. Bejar said the motorcyclist was thrown from his bike.

The CHP hasn’t determined yet why the motorcycle went into the westbound lane and how fast it was traveling before the crash, but Officer Ryan Bejar said drugs and alcohol were not suspected as factors.

The 40-year-old man driving the Yukon and his passengers — a 42-year-old woman, a 12-year-old boy, a 9-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl — weren’t injured, according to the Bejar. All are from Hanford, in the San Joaquin Valley.

The collision shut down a section of Angeles Crest Highway for nearly three and a half hours.

IndyCar drivers Ryan Briscoe and Ryan Hunter-Reay collided with a little more than a lap to go in Saturday’s MavTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway.

Both drivers were able walk away from the incident and managed to avoid serious injury.

The race included cars racing four- and five-wide in excess of 210 MPH on the front stretch, leading to an exciting race for fans, but a dangerous one for drives if the cars got too close.

More photos of the wreck and Saturday’s race.

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST >> A 27-year-old Fontana man died early Sunday after his motorcycle collided head-on with an SUV on Angeles Crest Highway, deep in the Angeles National Forest above Altadena.

The crash was first reported about 8:25 a.m. at mile marker 36.89 of Angeles Crest Highway, north of Ladybug Canyon Road, California Highway Patrol officials said. His name was not released pending family notification.

The rider was heading east on Angeles Crest Highway on a 2013 Yamaha R6 at an unknown speed just prior to the collision, CHP Sgt. Todd Kovaletz said in a written statement. A 2001 GMC Yukon was heading in the opposite direction.

“For an unknown reason, (the rider) drove across the painted double yellow lines into the opposing lane, directly into the path of the GMC,” the sergeant said. “(He) collided with the roadway, then with the GMC.”

Paramedics pronounced the motorcyclist dead at the scene.

The driver of the SUV, a 40-year-old Hanford man, as well as a woman and three children riding as passengers were not injured, Kovaletz said.

The crash is being investigated by the CHP’s Altadena office. Anyone with information was asked to contact Officer J. Ortega at 626-296-8100.

CORONA >> A homemade aircraft has crashed into a cellphone tower in Southern California, killing one person and injuring another.

The Riverside County Fire Department said Sunday the plane hit the cell tower and went down in an unincorporated area of Corona.

Authorities say one person died at the scene. A survivor was thrown from the plane and taken to the hospital with moderate injuries.

Firefighters were waiting for utility crews to arrive to shut off power before they can reach the victim in the plane.

No other details were immediately available.

Saturday’s IndyCar race in Southern California did not end well for Australian driver Ryan Briscoe, but it could have been a lot worse.

A lot worse.

With nine laps left in the MAVTV 500 at Fontana’s AutoClub Speedway, Briscoe’s car was sent airborne after being clipped by American Ryan Hunter-Reay. Fortunately for Briscoe, and everyone at the track, he was able to walk away from the frightening crash uninjured.

Viewing on mobile? Click here to see video of car crash.

JUNEAU, Alaska >> recovery crew on Friday reached a remote site in southeast Alaska where a sightseeing plane crashed, killing all nine people aboard.

Chris John of the Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad said the aircraft was sitting at a steep angle and three members from his organization had to secure it so they could safely work to recover the bodies.

Eight cruise ship passengers and the pilot died when the DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter turboprop went down Thursday in Misty Fjords National Monument near Ketchikan.

The cause of the crash remained under investigation.

Authorities tentatively identified the victims as Hal Cheney, 71, and Mary Doucette, 59, of Lodi, California; Glenda Cambiaso, 31, and Hugo Cambiaso, 65, of North Potomac, Maryland; June Kranenburg, 73, and Leonard Kranenburg, 63, of Medford, Oregon; Margie Apodaca, 63, and Raymond Apodaca, 70, of Sparks, Nevada; and the pilot, Bryan Krill, 64 of Hope, Idaho.

Their remains will be taken to and positively identified at the state medical examiner’s office in Anchorage.

The plane crashed on a cliff above a lake in steep, muddy and slippery terrain, John said. The fuselage was largely intact but the wings and tail were separated or heavily deformed, he said.

On Thursday, the Coast Guard received a report that the plane was overdue. An emergency locator transmitter activated and a helicopter pilot later spotted the downed aircraft.

Wind and rain prevented any recovery Thursday. Winds were not a concern Friday but there was cloud cover.

A National Transportation Safety Board team was assembled to investigate the crash. Plans were being made to take them to the site on Saturday, John said.

Ketchikan-based airline Promech Air operated the shore excursion offered through Holland America Line. The eight passengers were traveling on the Westerdam on a seven-day cruise that had departed Seattle last Saturday.

“We are incredibly distressed by this situation, and our thoughts and prayers are with those onboard the plane and their families,” Holland America said in a statement.

The airline echoed those sentiments.

“There is nothing I can say that can alleviate the pain and overwhelming sense of loss that we and the loved ones of those affected are feeling,” Marcus Sessoms, president of Promech Air, said in a statement.

The ship left Ketchikan Thursday night and was expected back in Seattle on Saturday.

Promech’s website advertises tours of the more than 3,000-square-mile Misty Fjord National Monument in its floatplanes.

“Towering granite cliffs, 1,000-foot waterfalls, lush and remote valleys and serene crystalline lakes make up this incredible landscape,” it says.