I-5 Reopens After Suspected Street Racing Causes Fatal, Fiery Crash

The 18-year-old son of a sheriff’s homicide detective was publicly identified Sunday as one of the three people killed by racing drivers on the Santa Ana (5) Freeway southeast of Los Angeles.

Brian Lewandowski was named as the third fatality from the fiery crash at 12:01 Saturday morning, on a trip with friends home from Disneyland. His name was released Sunday by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The other fatalities were identified by their acquaintances. The parents of Michelle Littlefield, 19, said they lost their daughter, a student studying business at College of the Canyons and an employee at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

A UPS truck driver, Scott Treadway, 52, of Mira Loma, was also killed in th crash, according to his co-workers at Teamsters Local 396. He had been driving trucks for the freight company for 30 years.

Four other people were burned in the explosive crash, on the Santa Ana (5) Freeway, about eight miles southeast of the Los Angeles Civic Center. Two of those people were critically injured, and witnesses said they had seen people running on the freeway, their clothes burning.

The teenagers had been returning from a visit to Disneyland in a gray Nissan.

Lewandowski was survived by his two brothers and his parents Jocelyn and Victor Lewandowski, a homicide detective with the Sheriff’s Department.

Dealio Lockhart, 35, of Whittier, remained jailed Sunday on $1 million bail, and would likely face vehicular manslaughter charges, CHP investigators said.

The driver of a second car, a Dodge Charger, is still being sought.

It all began shortly after midnight Saturday the drivers of the two Dodge muscle cars were driving aggressively and jockeying for position on the 5 Freeway, near the Citadel Outlet Mall, CHP investigators said.

The drivers of two cars were racing just after midnight on the southbound side of the freeway, near Garfield Avenue.

Lockhart, driving the Dodge Challenger, was racing a Dodge Charger when he saw a vehicle moving at normal freeway speed ahead. He swerved to go around the other the vehicle, at the same time the vehicle was moving to the right, a CHP report said.

He applied his brakes, lost control of the Dodge and hit the side of the UPS truck. The 18-wheel truck went airborne, over the center median, and sheared off the top of the oncoming Nissan, with four people inside heading home from Disneyland.

The truck came to rest on top of a red Ford Explorer on the northbound side of the freeway, north of Washington Boulevard, and immediately became burst into flames.

“It was fully engulfed and there were explosions at the scene from the truck which could have been tires exploding or the gas tanks,” CHP Officer Francisco Villalobos said.

Debris from the collision struck a Chevrolet Tahoe and Chevrolet Silverado, which were traveling on the northbound side. Treadway, Littlefield and Lewandowski were pronounced dead at the scene.

The crash also created a 24-hour nightmare for motorists, backing up freeway for miles, according to the CHP.

Lockhart, meanwhile, was being held at the Inmate Reception Center in downtown Los Angeles in lieu of $1 million bail and is due in court on Tuesday, also in downtown Los Angeles, according to sheriff’s online jail records.

Witnesses who saw the crash were asked to call the CHP’s East Los Angeles office at (323) 980-4600.

--City News Service, photos courtesy of the CHP