The Westside Morns Julia Siegler in a Terrible Accident
A 13-year-old girl trying to catch her school bus to Harvard-Westlake Middle School on Friday was struck by two vehicles and pronounced dead at a hospital, according to the police.
- Huffington Post
- Los Angeles Times
- LA Weekly
- Variety
- Jewish Journal
- The Wrap
- NBC
- More…
Two drivers who struck a 13-year-old girl who was crossing Sunset Boulevard on her way to catch her school bus have not been charged in her death, Los Angeles police announced late Friday.
The preliminary investigation into the Friday morning incident raises the possibility that it was a tragic accident rather than a hit-and-run crime, as was initially believed, said Los Angeles police Capt. Nancy Lauer.
“At this point, we have not arrested nor have we booked either of the drivers,” she said. “It appears to be a horrible accident.”
Julia Siegler, an eighth-grader at Harvard-Westlake School, was struck about 7:20 a.m. and rushed to UCLA Medical Center, where she died.
Early reports indicated that Siegler was struck by two hit-and-run drivers, but police indicated at the late-night news conference that this was not the case. Instead, Lauer said, witnesses said the girl was crossing the street on a red signal and was grazed by the side-view mirror of one car, which knocked her off balance. A second vehicle, driven by a juvenile, then ran her over.
Both drivers stopped at the scene, which was described as “extremely chaotic,” Lauer said. They remained at the accident site until the girl was taken by ambulance to the hospital, Lauer said.
From the Huffington Post
Julia Siegler, a 13 year old Harvard-Westlake student, was killed in a hit-and-run incident in Brentwood this morning . Paramedics were called to the intersection of Cliffwood and Sunset Blvd. at roughly 7:20 AM. LAPD West Traffic has confirmed for the HuffPost that they are searching for a silver Mercedes, contrary to earlier reports that the car in question was black.
Anyone with any information about the incident should call the LAPD’s West Traffic Division at 213 473 0222
Police searched Friday for the driver of a gray or black Mercedes-Benz sedan that fatally struck a middle-school girl as she was crossing a street in Brentwood.
The girl was reportedly crossing on foot against a red light ahead of her mother about 7:20 a.m. as she tried to catch a school bus in the 100 block of North Cliffwood Drive, police said.
My sympathy goes out to this girl’s family. – Peter Duke
More here
A Lexus Hybrid SUV, pulling out of Lower Palisades Circle to make a left hand turn, was struck by a truck heading up Palisades Drive this morning. Only minor injuries were reported.
Several accidents have occurred at the intersection and residents of the Palisades Highlands have asked city officials, in the past, for a controlled intersection at Palisades Drive and Lower Palisades Circle. The requests were denied. The intersections in this part of Palisades Drive are particularly dangerous because the slope of the incline prevents good visibility for both drivers coming up the hill and drivers attempting to turn left.
On the morning of December 11, 2009, Eric Bollens of Safe Westside and Jim Snelling of Advanced Driving Dynamics, along with traffic enforcement officers from the Santa Monica Police Department, presented to a packed auditorium of Crossroads High School sophomores and juniors, the majority of whom identified themselves as drivers.
In a manner similar to other Safe Westside assemblies, as the cell phones were turned off and the talking died down, Eric Bollens, a former Crossroads graduate, began with his speech on the false allure of speed, the words borne of his own personal experiences. “Clutched in, engine revving, eyes focused, every muscle tensed, every fiber ready to go. Everyone has seen The Fast and the Furious, Gone in Sixty Seconds, or Redline, or at least has some inkling of what this might feel like. Whether you’re racing a quarter mile in front of hundreds of racers, or you’re just speeding down a twisty canyon road late at night, there’s something so alluring about the whole thing.” Students looked quizzical at the statement. Wasn’t this about safe driving? “I’m not going to stand up here and say that it doesn’t look fun and cool. It does. I’m not going to stand up here and claim it doesn’t look glorious and exhilarating. It does. I’m not going to stand up here and claim I have never done it. I have.” According to one student, when all the kids had filtered into the auditorium, they’d been expecting to here the standard set of lines telling them not to drive fast because it was stupid and illegal. They hadn’t expected to receive acknowledgment of the adrenaline rush and the fun found in reckless abandon. “There is an allure about it all… or there is at least until you realize the cost.”
“Then came January 31, 2009, the day that everything changed. January 31, 2009. I still remember that day like yesterday.” The mood of the whole room changed — in a moment, it shifted from a tale of exciting dragging and drifting to a nightmare of death and pain. “I picked up the phone. My friend was screaming: ‘Rosser just died. Rosser just died.’ The world froze. Everything disappeared. I couldn’t believe it. I made him say it again and again. I couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t be right. It couldn’t be real.” A deep pain could be heard in Eric’s voice even ten months after the loss of his friend. He did not sugar coat the pain, but rather spoke of it directly and succinctly. “Ten months later, I still wake up with a deep pain in my heart. Ten months later, I am still broken. And I am not the only one. So many of us are still broken. Some wounds will never heal. Things will never be normal again, not for me, not for his parents, not for his sister, not for any of us that called Nick Rosser family.”
It was not just a tragic tale, however. His speech was a call for the students in the room to make a change: “So why am I here today? That answer should be obvious. Because I lost my friend, my partner-in-crime, my brother. Because I hope that you all do not have to loose such a friend. And because I hope that none of you here will be the next one lost yourself… Every day, I remind myself that this does not have to happen again. Every day, I remind myself that there do not have to be any more memorials lining our streets.”
As he drew his speech to a close, there was absolute silence. Without skipping a beat for the faint of heart, he then led into a presentation of some facts about driving safety. He pinned speed, drinking, aggressive driving, and distractions as the most common accident causes among teenagers, specifically citing cell phone and passenger laws, and then he spent a couple minutes relating the monetary and legal consequences of these accidents: tickets, accidents, insurance, lawsuits, and even jail. “There are many things that we all know about driving. We’ve had them ingrained in our heads from an early age: don’t speed or drive recklessly; don’t drive distracted; don’t drink and drive; don’t get in the car with dangerous drivers. But how hard are those things to do?” Not that hard, he went on to say. He called upon every driver in the audience to think when they were behind the wheel, and to think for their friends as well.
Jim Snelling, a former Le Mans 24-hour driver and current head instructor of an advanced driving academy in Irwindale, then asked the drivers in the audience how highly they rated themselves as drivers? The numbers seemed to center between seven and nine. Jim suggested that they lacked something critical to even rank themselves a one: experience. He then spent a few minutes covering common dangerous situations drivers find themselves in and how to deal with them. What is the correct way to regain control when your car spins looses traction on a slick? How does one slow down when the break pedal becomes ineffective? What do you do when the accelerator sticks? Students listened, seeping up what they could, and Jim provided a sheet with a good deal of additional information as well for those so inclined.
The final act of this assembly was a Q&A section led by Officer Mike Ortiz, a motor officer with the Santa Monica Police Department. In a very matter of fact way, Officer Ortiz explained numerous driving laws about which students had questions. He explained the reasons that some of these laws existed. He imparted his own experiences with the dangers of driving. When the bell rang, signaling the end of the assembly, the panel thanked the students for their time and again each took a moment to urge the students to please think before they next slammed the pedal to the floor or jumped into the driver’s seat after a long night of drinking.
This assembly was organized by Eric Bollens, in collaboration with Crossroads administrators Tom Nolan and David Olds, as part of Safe Westside’s continuing youth education initiative, the fourth such Safe Westside assembly since March. In it’s continuing efforts to carry a message about safe driving to the community, Safe Westside continues to look for additional opportunities to speak at schools and other community events. For more information, please contact info@safewestside.com.
On November 17, around 4 am a car driven by a teen ran off the road and crashed in the canyon. This car was caught speeding a week ago by the speedwatch team, doing 56 in the 35 mph zone. We were not in time to head off this near tragedy but we are on the right road.
Captain Lauer from West Los Angeles Traffic has provided overwhelming police presence over the last several days. Let me make it clear once again, we and the police are here to try and send a message to slow down. This has nothing to do with raising money, they can catch speeders in any of dozens of locations but we are fortunate to have them here. If the canyon is determined to be a construction zone due to the reservoir, your speeding tickets will go to about $800-$1000. What can you do to prevent the next fatality?
- Slow down
- Tell your kids to slow down
- Pay attention when driving.
The life you save, may be your own.
Speak to any local Palisadian and you’ll almost certainly hear stories, time after time, of fast approaching headlights late at night on Palisades Drive, or of roaring cars and bikes as they barreling down Sunset Boulevard. However, in recent months, this has become a less frequent occurrence, especially in the Palisades Highlands, thanks in part to a pervasive community awareness concerning the dangers of the roads and in part to the combined efforts of the Los Angeles Police Department, the local private security companies, and our local Speed Watch volunteers.
This is not to say that the job is anywhere near done.
To the contrary, as time passes, the task grows more daunting. As months go by, those who have most profoundly felt the impact of these losses do not forget; however, for many others, the memory fades. New drivers excitedly get their licenses, a newfound sort of freedom. Others notice that the police presence is not as constant as it used to be, and the ominous reminders of past crashes loose some of their power.
This the case, here is my continued call to action. We cannot relent in our pursuit to avoid the senseless loss of life that has become a running theme on our local roadways. In February, the newly constituted Safe Westside pinned three elements as key to our effort: enforcement, education and engineering.
Enforcement has had a visible impact thus far. In the past nine months, police officers have worked in the canyon on more than thirty occasions. In conjunction with hundreds of warning letters issued by the police on behalf of the Speed Watch volunteers, we’ve seen a dramatic decrease in the average speed of motorists on Palisades Drive. This effort must continue. It cannot ease up, or its impact will wane.
Education has rejuvenated an understanding of the dangers on our roads. In Spring 2009, Safe Westside facilitated four assemblies at Palisades Charter High School that reached more than 1200 in attendance, and even more through the reporting efforts of the high school newspaper, the Palisades Post, and the Los Angeles Times. This year, even more assemblies are planned in an attempt to continue the message both at Pali High and in other local schools. In addition, many in the local community have also signed the Pledge to Save Lives. These efforts must not cease.
Sadly, engineering efforts have faltered behind the other two, though they have still made forward progress. Several stop signs have been added in the Highlands, as well as other minor road modifications on Sunset and other local streets, but, in a time of budgetary cuts, it has proven rather difficult to get any such changes passed through, though the effort continues.
In all three areas, we have a long road ahead of us.
January 31, 2009, October 22, 2008, November 7, 2007, July 5, 2007, and April 11, 2001. These are days that will never be forgotten. These are days when our roads tragically claimed members of our small community. They were not the first, but let’s do our part in an attempt to make them the last.
For general information or to get involved with other Safe Westside endeavors, please contact info@safewestside.com. To get involved with Speed Watch, please email speedwatch@safewestside.com. To take the Pledge to Save Lives, please visit http://pledge.safewestside.com.
On April 2, 2009, over seven hundred kids across two class periods filed into Mercer Hall at Palisades Charter High School, unsure of what awaited them. Their teachers had told them that the assembly would cover the issue of safe driving; at 7:50 in the morning, many students walked in with tired, uninterested expression, expecting another assembly of talking heads. As they took their seats, though, the lights dimmed and the assembly began with a video clip, not of newscasters, parents or cops, but instead of kids actually partaking in a street race. “Let’s do this,” shouts one of the kids in the video excitedly. The lead car spins its tires and takes off. The cameraman takes chase and they begin racing, everyone hooting and hollering the whole way, at least for a few moments. Suddenly, the fun little exhibition of speed becomes a nightmare as the lead car flips and the driver is launched out the window, coming to rest motionless on the ground in front of the vehicle. As the clip ends, the screams of the person’s friends can be heard.
A pin drop could have been heard in the silence that followed the clip. The lights came back on. “Clutched in, engine revving, eyes focused, every muscle tensed, every fiber ready to go,” I began, setting the stage for the rest of the assembly with a keynote called The False Allure of Speed. “This isn’t about street racing… It’s about driving fast, about driving reckless, and about driving under the influence, three things so many of us have done, and three things that so many of us have taken for granted…” Over the next thirty minutes, I and members of the local community each took turns giving our personal perspective on the need for safe driving. Sam Rahbarpour, a tenth grade student at Pali High, spoke about a bad accident he’d recently been involved in, and he called for his fellow classmates to not take driving for granted. LAPD Motor Officer Chris Smythe and CHP Public Information Officer Travis Ruiz then explained the legal repercussions and consequences of speeding. Defense attorneys Steve Cron and Shep Kopp, both whom have argued numerous driving cases, further emphasized how there aren’t always easy escapes from the legal consequences. LAPD Officer Chris Ragsdale, former senior lead of the Palisades, then came in with a perspective many didn’t expect from him, not one further emphasizing what had already been said, but instead one talking about the non-legal, but life-effecting consequences of dangerous driving, lamenting how many fatal road related accidents he’d seen over the years, and calling on people to wisen up and make a change, if not for the legal consequences, then for themselves. School psychologist Bella McGowan wrapped up the panel discussion by covering the emotional effects of these road related accidents.
In the following minutes, the assembly was opened up to questions and comments. Some students vehemently attacked the message of the panel: “I’ve had five accidents, and I’ll probably still speed again,” stated one student, causing an outcry from other students and a vehement, yet measured, response from myself and personal friend of both Travis and Nick, Rafael Marino, who had joined us at the panel table for the Q&A portion of the assembly. Other students voiced their firm support of the message of the assembly. Some told personal stories about friends, family and colleagues that had been lost in road related accidents. One student even assailed the ex-speeders on the panel, asking them how they could have gone about doing what they did for as long as they did. There were also more general questions that were asked of the panel: “Can you get a ticket when you’re driving with the flow of traffic?”, “Can an LAPD officer give you a ticket on the freeway?”, “Does an officer have to show you the radar gun if you ask?”, and of course “How do you plan to enforce safer driving?” Our local law enforcement officers fielded the legal question with help from the defense attorneys, while Steve and I, both active members of Safe Westside, responded concerning the question of what comes next with an explanation of the Pledge, the Speed Watch citizen radar program, and other initiatives that the coalition is currently pursuing.
As the assembly period drew to a close, the Q&A ended and attention fell back upon the front of the room where numerous kids, from both Pali High and the local community, had lined up. On screen, the words of the Pledge appeared. One voice began: “In order to prevent the senseless deaths of more members of our community…” And then another spoke, and another, and another, until the entire Pledge had been read. In the aftermath of this assembly, more than two hundred students took the Pledge to Save Lives.
This assembly, organized by Susan Strick and I, in collaboration with Pali High administrator Monica Iannessa, is the first of many to come. On Wednesday April 29, 2009 at 7:00 PM in Mercer Hall at Pali High, a follow-up assembly will be occurring, geared for parents and other adults in our local community, and, in the future, we’re looking to reach out to other local public and private schools as well.
At approximately 7:10 PM this evening, a maroon Eclipse headed west on Palisades Circle swiped a parked gray Audi. Excessive speed was quoted as the primary culprit of the accident. The impact ripped the right front axle on the Eclipse and rolled the vehicle. Paramedics from Station 23 and officers of LAPD responded within minutes and the driver was taken from the scene shortly thereafter; witnesses reported that the driver freed herself from the vehicle prior to their arrival. There were no passengers. A portion of Palisades Circle was closed for through traffic until the accident was cleared at 8:30 PM.
