One dead, three injured in wrong-way crash on the 110 Freeway in south LA
One person was killed and three others were injured in a multi-vehicle crash in downtown Los Angeles involving a wrong-way driver early Friday.
California Highway Patrol responded around 2:49 a.m. on northbound Harbor (110) Freeway and Exposition Boulevard.
When officers arrived they found several vehicles, including a Toyota Prius taxi, blocking the right lanes of the freeway, a CHP spokesman said.
The investigation revealed that a woman was driving a Chevy Cruz southbound in the northbound lanes and smashed, head-on, into the victim, who was driving the Prius taxi. A CHP representative said both the driver and passenger in the Chevy Cruz were extricated from the car, as well as one passenger from the Prius taxi.
The taxi driver, identified as Ken Balayev, 71 of Calabasas, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver of the Chevrolet, 23-year-old Samantha Molina of Los Angeles, was hospitalized for treatment of "major" injuries, and she was arrested, pending the possible filing of undisclosed charges, the CHP reported.
The 21-year-old male passenger in the Chevy Cruz was hospitalized with major injuries. The 48-year-old male passenger in the taxi was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
The crash closed all northbound lanes on the 110 Freeway between Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and I-10 for several hours causing major backups. All lanes reopened around 6 a.m.
