Teenage Driver Killed In Highlands Accident

November 07, 2007

Sue Pascoe , Staff Writer

Travis DeZarn, a June 2007 graduate of Palisades Charter High School, died in a car crash on Palisades Drive late Saturday night after visiting his girlfriend, who lives in the Highlands.

As DeZarn, 18, drove down Palisades Drive towards Sunset Boulevard his 1990 Acura Integra crossed over the center line, spun out and was hit broadside by a 2005 Honda CRV traveling north in the number-one lane, according to police investigators. DeZarn's Acura was ripped in half by the impact.

'I came onto the scene around 11:40 p.m. and it was apparent that it had just happened,' Bruce Ishimatsu wrote in an e-mail to the Palisadian-Post. 'No emergency vehicles had arrived yet. There were a couple of uninvolved drivers who had just stopped at the scene who called out to me to call paramedics when I got down the hill because there is no cell reception at that place in the canyon.

'When I reached the bottom of Palisades Drive, I dialed 911 and drove to the nearby Fire Station 23 on Sunset,' Ishimatsu continued. 'It was dark and I pounded on the windows and doors to get their attention. Within a minute, the lights came on inside and they started to dispatch. The 911 operator also told me help was being dispatched.'

Firemen found DeZarn dead at the scene. The 40-year-old female driver of the Honda and her 12-year-old female passenger were taken to the UCLA trauma center. 'They appeared to have minor injuries, but anytime there's a fatality accident, others in the crash are routinely transported to the trauma center,' said Fire Station 23 Captain Dan Thompson.

Dr. Gina Gonzalez was driving home to the Highlands at about 12:30 a.m. when she passed the accident scene. 'There were multiple fire trucks and police cars and all lanes were blocked except for one,' she said. 'The cars were indescribably mangled. It was horrific.'

According to LAPD Traffic Detective Fisher, the most likely cause of the crash was excess speed. There was no indication of alcohol or drugs, Fisher said. Highlands resident Beth Cranston told the Post on Tuesday that DeZarn and her daughter, Hannah, had been watching a movie before DeZarn, a Culver City resident, left the Cranston residence to return home.

Highlands resident Bruce Schwartz said he was not surprised that another accident had occurred at that location in the canyon, about 3/4ths of a mile above Sunset. He started lobbying for changes on the road when Councilman Cindy Miscikowski was still in office.

'If you look at where most of the wrecks take place on Palisades Drive, it is at the S-curve,' Schwartz said. 'I've seen a BMW rolled there and a Ford Victoria sedan.'

Beth Cranston knows first-hand where her daughter's boyfriend's accident happened. 'Last year, a car crossed the center line [at the same location as the accident] and ran me off the road,' she said.

Although the posted speed limit is 45 mph, the downhill slope and remote location can easily cause a driver to pick up speed.

'We have to do something, it's a chronic problem there,' Schwartz said. 'There are no reflectors, no street lights'it's pitch black. We need signs or something that might influence a driver to slow down.'

'It's a four-lane modern road through a winding canyon,' said Paul Glasgall, chairman of the Palisades Highlands Presidents' Council, who has been advocating for a speed trailer, yellow rubber dividers with reflectors (like those along Pacific Coast Highway) and increased police presence.

Palisades Drive has always been a treacherous two-mile stretch, but residents wonder if anything will change.

'The fact that most people don't know the people involved in an accident or didn't see the horror of the accident allows them to chalk it up to back luck,' Ishimatsu told the Post. 'Unfortunately these accidents don't discriminate and we are all closer to tragedy than we like to think. The Acura was torn in half and I can't get that out of my mind.'

DeZarn, an outstanding lacrosse player while in high school, was a freshman at Cal State Long Beach. (See obituary)