The car involved in Sunday’s fatal accident in Echo Park was traveling nearly 70 miles an hour on Sunset Boulevard when the driver lost control of the vehicle, an investigator said today. The driver, Stephanie Silvestre, 21, of Los Angeles, was killed and a passenger was left in critical condition following the accident near Sunset Boulevard and Mohawk Street. “Speed was the main issue,” said Felix Padilla, a detective with the LAPD’s Central Traffic Bureau.
A preliminary analysis of skid marks and calculations showed that Silvestre’s vehicle, a Honda Accord sedan, was traveling at least 68 miles an hour as it barreled eastbound on a curving section of Sunset Boulevard, Padilla said. Padilla noted that the winding section of Sunset Boulevard west of Alvarado was the scene of a deadly accident last year. “She was just not able to make that curve,” he said of Silvestre.
The car clipped a fire hydrant in front of a fire station and knocked down a light pole before it slammed against the Lucy’s laundry building at the southeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and Mohawk Street. Some of the comments to a previous story on the accident took issue with what looks like a shot glass placed amid the flowers and candles in a memorial created for Silvestre.
Padilla said he was awaiting toxicology reports to determine if alcohol was involved.
