A driver was killed and two other people were taken to hospital early Saturday after three vehicles collided at one of Gardena's busiest intersections, in a crash that threw one motorist out of a vehicle and left police searching for answers about how it happened.

Source: MyNewsLA

Gardena police officers were dispatched at approximately 6 a.m. on Saturday, November 14, to the intersection of Normandie Avenue and Rosecrans Avenue, according to Lt. Matthew Hassoldt of the Gardena Police Department. When officers arrived, they found three vehicles involved in the collision and one driver who had been ejected and appeared to have suffered fatal injuries.

Source: MyNewsLA

Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics pronounced the ejected motorist dead at the scene. Two other people were rushed to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance for treatment, Hassoldt said. The severity of their injuries had not been released by Saturday evening, and the identity of the driver who died had not been made public, pending notification of family.

Source: Pacific Attorney Group

What police know — and what they do not

Both accounts of the crash, drawn from the Gardena Police Department, agree on the core facts: three vehicles, an early-morning collision, one ejection and one death at the scene. What authorities have not said is how the three vehicles came together — which direction each was travelling, whether speed, a red light or impairment played any role, or whether any driver will face charges. The Gardena Police Department is investigating to establish the factors that led to the collision, and no cause had been announced by the time of publication.

Source: Pacific Attorney Group

A major South Bay crossroads

Normandie Avenue is one of the principal north–south arterials of Los Angeles's South Bay, running from the Harbor Gateway through Gardena toward Torrance, while Rosecrans Avenue is a major east–west corridor linking the beach cities with Compton and the 110 and 405 freeway corridors. Their crossing in Gardena carries heavy early-morning traffic — commuters, delivery vehicles and trucks moving between the ports, warehouses and the freeway network — and it is the kind of wide, multi-lane intersection where collisions tend to happen at speed.

Saturday's death is the second fatal crash Gardena police have handled at a major intersection this month. On the evening of Tuesday, November 3, a motorcyclist collided with a Mercedes-Benz at El Segundo Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, a few minutes' drive from Normandie and Rosecrans. The rider, later identified by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner as 30-year-old Romario Ribeiro, died at hospital, and that investigation is being handled by the department's Traffic Bureau.

Source: MyNewsLA

What happens next

The investigation now sits with the Gardena Police Department, which will reconstruct the collision from vehicle damage, roadway evidence and any witness or camera accounts. The name of the driver who died is expected to be released by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner once family has been notified, following the same process used after the November 3 crash. The conditions of the two people taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and any findings on cause, will come from the department as the inquiry proceeds. Awaaz Punjab will update this story when police release them.