Crash causes minor damage
Campus Times
May 16, 2003
An accident on D Street and Arrow Highway Monday ended with a Ford
Expedition plowing into the freshly renovated Mobil gas station. The owner
of the vehicle comforts one of her sons as she surveys the wreck. Another
one of her children was taken to the hospital on a stretcher as a precautionary
measure, according to the La Verne Police Department.
A head-on collision Monday afternoon between an SUV and a pickup sent
one child to the hospital after the crash sent the SUV into the Mobil gas
station on the corner of D Street and Arrow Highway.
Three small children and their mother were traveling in the Ford Expedition
SUV with their mother.
One of the children was taken by ambulance for precautionary measures,
said Tom Pellerin, senior officer for the La Verne Police Department traffic
division.
An adult male was driving the pickup, a Toyota, which had Sanders Lock
and Key written on the door, which was moving westbound on Arrow Highway,
while the Expedition was attempting to head eastbound on Arrow Highway,
said Pellerin, who did not give the names of any involved in the accident.
Both vehicles sustained major damages, including smashed front bumpers
and broken windshields.
The California Highway Patrol, paramedics and several La Verne Police
Department and Fire Department officials arrived on the scene shortly after
the accident, which occurred at approximately 3:12 p.m.
Emile Abraham was working at the Mobil gas station when he heard the
accident. He called the La Verne police, though California Highway Patrol
officers were already there by the time he made the call.
"I just heard a loud boom, and then I called it in," Abraham
said.
The gas station sustained minor damages to the outer wall facing Arrow
Highway. Surrounding shrubbery was also damaged when the Expedition veered
into a bush on the premises.
The impact slightly pushed away the store's inside counter, Pellerin
said.
Brian Brooks, a Pomona resident, who witnessed the entire accident from
the southeast corner of Arrow Highway and D Street, described it as "sudden"
and "without warning."
Brooks said it looked like the Expedition's throttle was stuck, and
smoke was coming out of the tires, which were spinning in place.
"I came over to see if anyone was hurt," Brooks said.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation.
"So now the question is, 'Who ran the red light?'" Pellerin
said.
