Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : AIDS Sufferer Involved in Car Crash Dies

SANTA CLARITA — A man in the advanced stages of AIDS who killed a 73-year-old woman when he ran a red light has died after refusing medical treatment since the June 17 accident, authorities said.

Steven Dortman, 35, died at 1:30 a.m. Friday at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, Deputy Mark Slater of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station said. Slater said he did not know if Dortman died of acquired immune deficiency syndrome or from injuries sustained in the accident.

The cause of death will probably be released today, said Lt. Nils Linder of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

The victim in the crash was Bertha Olsen, who was killed when she tried to make a left turn onto Sierra Highway. Dortman hit the driver’s side door of her car.

Olsen’s car spun and hit a nearby van, but the driver of that vehicle was not seriously injured.

Dortman was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter when witnesses told deputies they saw him drive off the road into a fence several miles before the crash, and he was swaying back and forth unsteadily in his truck as he continued to drive. He also admitted to deputies he smoked marijuana before the collision because, he said, it helped alleviate AIDS-related symptoms.