Police suspect DUI in fatal crash

A 30- year- old driver was arrested after the fiery two- car collision in South L. A. that killed father, two kids.

A man was arrested Sunday in connection with a f iery two- vehicle crash in South Los Angeles that killed two young children and their father and sent the rest of their family to the hospital, police said.

Jose Garcia, 30, was being held on suspicion of driving under the inf luence and vehicular manslaughter, said Los Angeles Police Department Officer Mike Lopez.

Garcia was speeding north on Hoover Street in South Los Angeles around 7: 30 p. m. Saturday when he ran a red light at West 76th Street and crashed into a Dodge Caravan with a family of five inside, including three children, Lopez said.

The two cars then erupted into f lames, drawing ambulances and frantic residents of the Vermont Knolls neighborhood from their homes.

A witness told KTLA she saw a child being walked to an ambulance: “His body was charred and his clothes had literally melted onto him.”

Three people who were in the van — the father, a young girl and a baby boy — died at the scene, Lopez said.

The mother, who is in her 30s, and another boy were taken to the hospital in severe condition, he said.

None of the victims’ names have been released.

Garcia, the sole occupant of a Nissan Xterra, was also taken to a hospital, then released and handed over to officers, Lopez said. It was determined he had been driving under the inf luence, Lopez said.

Garcia is being held on $ 330,000 bail, according to L. A. County Sheriff ’s Department records.