Car accident involving LAPD in Venice drawing questions

October 19, 2009 at 2:13 am in Law Enforcement

The facts:
Earlier this week at the intersection of Venice Boulevard and Glyndon Avenue in Venice, at 12:20am there was a car accident involving an LAPD cruiser with 2 officers and another vehicle driven by a woman. All three people were sent to the hospital, the woman subsequently died from her injuries. The LAPD has confirmed that the officers were not on a service call at the time of the accident.

The questions:
According to this article the LAPD is investigating the accident to determine what happened. According to the comments on that article by people claiming to be eye witnesses and residents who live on or near that intersection, the question isn’t what happened, but why. These comments piece together a story and timeline that suggests the LAPD cruiser was traveling between 50-70mph down Venice Blvd without lights or sirens on and hit a BMW driven by a woman squarely on the drivers side. Within moments 10 or more police cruisers arrived and began to close off the block as a crime scene but it was close to 15 minutes before an ambulance or emergency workers arrived. There is a lot of speculation and anger in the comments especially aimed at the LAPD reports and media who seem to be only covering one side of the story, and messing up details left and right. It’s worth reading.

It’s also worth noting that while witnesses of the above accident are reporting that other officers were on the scene within minutes, other Venice residents are complaining of response times of up to an hour when they are calling in with problems that don’t involve other LAPD officers. (thanks Xeni)

There is also a Facebook Group created by friends of Devin, the woman who died, collecting thoughts and memories about her.

5 Comments »

http://frazgomeanders.blogspot.com frazgo

There seems to be two issues here. First is the general response time of an hour to calls which the community finds unacceptable. Sounds like their “community officers” need to be questioned on this and the issue escalated until someone who can resolve.

The second is that the area needed to be blocked off for the MATE (Major Accident Trauma Enquiry?) team to get measurements for reconstructing speed and approaches of the vehicles. With the cities assets on the line small wonder such a huge squadron of cars arrived.

With the woman having a stop sign its going to be hard to argue she yielded to all traffic before entering the intersection. I have reservations on the witness accounts on speed unless they were out there watching the entire approach and picked of two points and timed the officers. Witnesses in my experience always over-estimated speed. Isn’t the speed on Venice 40 through there? I’m not saying speed wasn’t a factor, I’m just saying it will be determined by the recon’s and it if above the prevailing speed for that street then there is a potential liability on the city.
http://www.yovenice.com/2009/10/19/lapd-car-accident-in-venice-fatality/ LAPD Car Accident in Venice Fatality | Yo! Venice!

[...] From Sean at metblogs: [...]
Jason

I live at Venice & Glyndon and was among the dozens of local residents who were outside shortly after the crash.

To answer your questions: “I have reservations on the witness accounts on speed unless they were out there watching the entire approach and picked of two points and timed the officers. Witnesses in my experience always over-estimated speed. Isn’t the speed on Venice 40 through there?”

The speed limit is 40 on this part of Venice. A witness driving behind the cops says they whizzed by her while she was going the speed limit. And the damage to the BMW was too extensive for them to have been going 40, or even 50–the driver’s side of the car was crushed.

The woman who was killed was coming home from a late shift at a hospital, not exactly the type to be driving recklessly around Venice at that hour.

The LAPD is definitely trying to spin this–I’m not going to outright accuse them of lying, but I hope they come clean. There are too many witnesses for them to try something like that. Right?
http://www.jozjozjoz.com/ jozjozjoz

Evidently Devin was taken off life support a day after the accident and her organs were used in transplants to save four different people across the U.S.

An incredible write-up is here:
http://miminewyork.blogspot.com/2009/10/rest-in-peace-devin-petelski.html
Amanda Jennings

Well, at least no one died when we got hit by the Louisiana State Police but it was basically the same thing. ALOT of police there to buddy up and no ambulance. State Police got there within 20 minutes and it normally takes them an hour or two. It was word against word and we got the ticket. Said we ran the red light. State Trooper’s word is gold! To add insult to injury even after this, there is a false witness on the police report that wasn’t even there. They can lie but in the end they will pay, god doesn’t like liers. So sick of the power going to their heads. Abuse of power is obvious in this parish. My husband hit his head and is suffering. The passenger, my brother-in-law got a broke shoulder and collar bone thanks to one of LA finest.

Car accident involving LAPD in Venice drawing questions

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