Local News in Brief : 7 Injured in Crash; Motorist Is Sought

Traffic officers were looking for a motorist who they say set off a crash that injured seven people, one of them critically, in busy Los Angeles rush-hour traffic at 1st Street and Vermont Avenue on Friday afternoon.

The errant motorist made a sudden left turn in front of a woman driving a station wagon who swerved to avoid hitting him. She careened into a parking lot, hitting and critically injuring a pedestrian as she did so, Police Sgt. Daryll Dement said. Her car came to rest on top of two parked vehicles in the lot.

A man sitting in one of the cars was seriously injured, the other car was unoccupied. Debris from the crash hit two other pedestrians, causing minor injuries, Dement said.

Two children riding with the woman in the station wagon received minor injuries. The woman was seriously injured. Dement said the driver who had made the sudden turn stopped, surveyed the scene and then drove on. “He was aware of what he had done,” Dement said.