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Driver Who Landed on five Freeway Sign After Fatal Crash Was Passing on Shoulder: CHP
A 20-year-old Burbank man whose assets landed on an overhead exit ramp sign after a rollover crash near Griffith Park was passing vehicles on the right shoulder of the five Freeway before veering out of control, CHP announced Friday afternoon.
A KTLA viewer submitted this photo of an Oct. 30, 2015, crash on the five Freeway that left a driver dead on an overhead sign.
The collision occurred just before seven a.m. on the southbound freeway just north of the eastbound one hundred thirty four Freeway overpass (map).
Richard Pananian of Burbank was killed, according to Lt. David Smith of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.
A witness told the California Highway Patrol that Pananian was driving his two thousand four Ford Fiesta at a high rate of speed and passing vehicles on the right shoulder.
The 45-year-old driver of a two thousand four Ford F-150 was in the No. Four lane going fifty mph when Pananian veered left from the right-hand shoulder and hit the pickup truck’s rear, according to a CHP collision report.
The Fiesta then veered right, out of control, and overturned numerous times. As the Fiesta traveled up an embankment, Pananian was ejected about twenty feet into the air, colliding with an exit ramp sign overhead, the report stated.
Richard Pananian is shown in a photo from a driver’s license issued in 2013. (Credit: DMV)
Pananian came to rest on the “ledge” in front of the sign. His severely bruised Fiesta spinned back onto the freeway.
“Based on the injuries sustained and force of influence” with the F-150, it wasn’t clear exactly what killed Pananian, the CHP report stated.
He was pronounced dead by Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics.
The F-150 driver, who had two passengers in his truck, was not injured, nor were his passengers.
It appeared Pananian was not wearing a seat belt, according to CHP.
“Any time you speed and you don’t wear your seat belt, there’s a good chance you’re going to get hurt, if not killed,” CHP Officer Edgar Figueroa said on scene.
It was not known if drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash, the CHP report stated.
An L.A. firefighter covers the figure of a man who was ejected from a vehicle after a crash on the five Freeway on Oct. 30, 2015. (Credit: KTLA)
Pananian’s figure was covered with a sheet after firefighters ascended a ladder and worked to liquidate the assets in the nine a.m. hour. The figure remained there for several hours.
He had landed on a sign alerting drivers to the Colorado Street exit, three-quarters of a mile away.
Pananian evidently worked at a Van Nuys-based automobile sales company called L.A. Autostore. “Rest in peace,” the company stated of “Tiko” on Facebook.
All southbound and northbound lanes of the five Freeway were temporarily blocked, and the two southbound right lanes were closed for an extended period.
All lanes reopened about eleven a.m., CHP’s Southern Division stated on Twitter.
The incident happened in the Griffith Park area, bordering on the northern section of the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles.
