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Going 70 in a 35 MPH Zone
Unique Nails shop owner Pham Ngoc Tien, places flowers under a blood stained tree where three people were killed, when their car slammed into the it (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
The city knew of the speeding problems on Colorado Blvd. in Eagle Rock, they even had set up a special LAPD task force to deal with it last year. After Wednesday night's crash that claimed the lives of three people and an unborn child leaving two critically injured, it will be set up again, according to the LA Times.
Three cars were involved in the alleged street race. The two others did not crash into the tree and one stayed behind leading to the arrest of Rostislav Shnayder, 19, on suspicion of murder in connection with the accident. Another car fled the scene.
Witnesses said they were going around 70 miles per hour on the 35 mph street, but a friend of the pregnant mother who was behind the wheels of the crashed car said she didn't think they were involved in the race. "I don't think so, especially because her sister was going to give birth next month," she told the Times. "I don't think it was racing. If anything, it was the other two cars and they got in the middle of it."
The LAPD also says "there is no evidence that the involved persons or vehicles were engaged in an organized speed competition" (emphasis added).
UPDATE 1:50 P.M.: The LAPD just sent this out regarding one of the car passengers who initially survived the crash: "On August 29, 2008 at around 9:45 a.m., 15-year-old Andrew Cordova died at Huntington Memorial Hospital as a result of the injuries he sustained after Wednesday night’s traffic collision. The LA County District Attorney filed four counts of Vehicular Manslaughter with Gross Negligence against 19-year-old Rostislav Shnayder.
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