Two Pedestrians Killed by Driver on Cell Phone

By Jorge Casuso

A driver who was talking on her cell phone struck and killed two pedestrians who were crossing Ocean Avenue on the way to Palisades Park Friday night.

The elderly women were crossing in an unmarked crosswalk at the corner of Washington and Ocean avenues when a 1995 Mercedes travelling at 35 to 40 miles an hour struck them, police said.

One victim, described as a white female between 65 and 70 and wearing dark clothes, died at the scene, police said. The remaining victim, a Russian-speaking white female in her late sixties, was transported to UCLA-Westwood where she died during surgery.

The driver, a 45-year-old female, was taken into custody pending further investigation.

"According to a witness, the pedestrians were arm in arm and looking toward each other as they walked, and (the driver) was talking on a cell phone," Police Chief James T. Butts Jr. wrote in a city memo issued Monday.

"After the collision, (the driver) refused to exit the vehicle or cooperate in any way," according to the memo. "At one point she had been told not to move the vehicle yet she did anyway."