By Mary O’ KEEFE

Last Thursday evening, a van traveling eastbound on Montrose Avenue drove through a red light, hit another car then went airborne, landing and skidding to a stop in the opposite lane according to witnesses.

About 7:30 p.m. a van driven by a 50-year-old Glendale man was traveling eastbound on Montrose Avenue when it apparently ran a red light at Ocean View Boulevard and hit a car driven by a 60-year-old Monrovia woman.

“I would say he was going about 40 to 50 miles per hour.  The driver ran the red light and hit the front bumper of the other car then flew,” said Mike Yerton.

“Have you ever seen Dukes of Hazard?” asked 10-year-old Damon Yerton. “Well that’s what it was like.”

Yerton was in a car that was traveling southbound on Ocean View Boulevard at the time of the accident. There was a vehicle in front of Yerton waiting to turn left when the van went through.

“If that car was just a little farther ahead he would have been hit,” Yerton added.

Penny Jones, her daughter and a friend, were passing through the intersection at the time.

“The van hit the front of the woman’s car. He was traveling fast. It was just lucky that no one was seriously hurt,” Jones said.

The woman driver was alone in the vehicle. She was transported to the hospital with minor injuries, according to California Highway Patrol.

The van’s driver and passenger were treated at the scene.

Several witnesses waited to speak to CHP about what they had seen.

“This is a busy intersection.  It was lucky no one was in the crosswalk and that there wasn’t another car in the [westbound lane of Montrose Avenue] where the van landed,” Yerton said.

The accident is under investigation by CHP.

  accident, chp