Crime & Safety
Off-Duty Officer Killed in Sherman Oaks Crash
Officer who died in fatal accident on the 101 has now been identified.
The Los Angeles Police department has now released the name of the off-duty officer who was killed in an early morning accident on the 101 Freeway in Sherman Oaks.
He is identified as 23 year old Jose Diance-Cruz of Sylmar, assigned to LAPD's Southwest station.
A California Highway Patrol officer said in a statement that the driver
"drifted off the main travel portion of the roadway'' and drove into a metal
guardrail at the eastbround Van Nuys Boulevard offramp.
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Officer Diance-Cruz, who was driving a pick up truck, died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center two hours after the wreck.
He was found gravely injured about 3:20 a.m., still belted into the drivers's seat which had been forced out of the pickup as it struck the guard rail according to LAPD Sgt. Carl Taylor.
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"The guard rail penetrated the interior of the pickup, pushing both the driver's seat and its occupant out the rear window," said the California Hyway Patrol statement.
About 1:15 p.m. Saturday, a motorcade of 10 LAPD units with lights and sirens
activated transported his body from the hospital to the coroner's office.
City News Service Contributed to this story.
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