More details have emerged in the fatal car crash near Griffith Park that ended with a 20-year-old man ejected from his car and onto a freeway sign.
Richard Pananian of Burbank was killed in the accident, which happened just before 7 a.m. on the southbound 5 freeway just north of the eastbound 134 Freeway overpass.
According to a CHP witness, Pananian was driving his 2004 Ford Fiesta and passing vehicles at a high rate of speed on the right shoulder. A 2004 Ford F-150 was in the No. 4 lane going 50 mph when Pananian veered left from the right-hand shoulder and hit the pickup truck’s rear, according to a CHP collision report.
At that point, Pananian’s Fiesta veered right, he lost control of the vehicle, and the car rolled a number of times. The Fiesta went up an embankment, at which point Pananian was catapulted about 20 feet into the air, landing on an exit ramp sign for Colorado Street. His car tumbled back onto the freeway.
The CHP does not believe that Pananian was wearing a seatbelt. He was pronounced dead at the scene by Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics.
The 45-year-old driver and two passengers of the F-150 driver were not injured.
