LA Times Article 12/08/2004

JPL van crash leaves three dead

Commuter vehicle with 10 passengers goes over mountainside on Angeles Forest Road. Seven survive accident.

By Robert Chacon and Rima Shah, News-Press and Leader

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST — A van carrying 10 Jet Propulsion Laboratory employees plunged more than 300 feet down a mountainside Wednesday morning, killing three passengers and injuring seven.

The employees were on their way to work at about 6:30 a.m. via the Angeles Forest Road-Angeles Crest (2) Highway route — a popular bypass into the Los Angeles area for motorists living in the Antelope Valley — when the van suddenly veered off the road and over an embankment, according to California Highway Patrol officers.

Road conditions were damp, CHP officer Vince Bell said. A motorist driving behind the van who witnessed the accident contacted CHP officers near the Clear Creek Ranger Station, he added.

More than 100 emergency personnel from the CHP, Los Angeles County Fire and Sheriff's departments, Montrose Search and Rescue, and the U.S. Forest Service responded to the scene of the accident, which was on Angeles Forest Road about four miles from Angeles Crest Highway.

Killed in the accident were JPL employees Dorothy Forks, 53, and Jane Galloway, 49, and Kerri Lynn Agey, 48, an employee with Wackenhut Security, a contractor at the lab, said Blaine Baggett, executive manager of JPL's Office of Communication and Education.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of these members of the JPL family. To their families and loved ones, we want to express our deepest condolences," Baggett said. "It takes all kinds of people to explore the solar system. Some of them are engineers, some scientists. But these accomplishments are made possible by the contributions of all of the professionals at JPL. The loss of Dorothy, Jane and Kerri is deeply felt by us all."

The seven injured, which includes the driver, were airlifted to area hospitals; five to Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, one to Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills and the other to Henry Mayo Memorial Hospital in Newhall. Their names were not released.

By 5 p.m., three patients had been released from the hospitals.

Two of the injured remained in critical but stable condition at Huntington Memorial, one with a fractured neck, the other with a broken back, hospital spokeswoman Connie Matthews said.

The remaining two patients were in good to fair condition, one at Holy Cross, the other at Huntington Memorial, Baggett said.

The injured who remained hospitalized at Huntington Memorial were "very much happy to be alive and in a little bit of disbelief," Matthews said, adding that some mentioned a divine intervention from above.

News about the accident spread quickly through the sprawling campus on the east end of La Cañada Flintridge, JPL employees said. During a lunch break, some were still waiting to see if one or more of the colleagues they worked with were on the van.

"I am concerned that some of my friends might be hurt. They commute from there," said Amy Culver, who lives in La Cañada Flintridge and works as an engineer for the Cassini mission.

Antelope Valley commuters use Angeles Forest Road and Angeles Crest Highway in order to avoid heavy traffic on Highway 14, which connects to the Golden State (5) Freeway.

Officials from JPL, which is owned by NASA, said they would look into measures that would ensure the safety of employees who drive the route.

"Nothing is more important to NASA and JPL than the safety of its employees, and we will be looking at ways to prevent such an accident from occurring again," Baggett said.

JPL does not have a vanpool program of its own. Instead, groups of employees pay to lease large passenger vans from one of two companies, Enterprise Rent-a-car and Van Pool Services Inc.

Four vanpools originate from the Antelope Valley and it is up to the driver's discretion which route they take, JPL spokesman Alan Buis said. About 450 employees from around the Southland use 30 vans to get to work, Baggett said.