Fatal Accident Likely Has a Skid Row Drug Connection

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — A tragic traffic accident has turned into an illustration of the danger drugs bring to the Skid Row area. Reports last night told of one fatality in a four vehicle collision at 7th and San Pedro. Today the Times fills in details that include a woman charged with murder.

Nicole Jiyoung Park of Los Angeles was arrested and charged with murder after she crashed her Audi into a parked car and killed its driver, then careened into two other cars. Park had consumed narcotics earlier in the day, said Los Angeles Police Officer Elizabeth Felix.

Park was driving south on San Pedro Street near 7th Street about 7 p.m. when she crashed into a car parked near the northwest curb. The parked car skidded out of control, knocking over a fire hydrant and smashing into a traffic signal, when it became engulfed in flames, said Felix, who works with the Central traffic division.

While the story doesn’t state one way or the other, it’s easy to speculate that Park had come down to Skid Row to buy and use drugs. The streets of Skid Row offer a place to score and use anonymously, and sometimes the consequences of that availability are fatal.