Grandpa dies in crash as other driver flees, California cops say. ‘He was everything’
Investigators are seeking the other driver in a crash that killed a 67-year-old man, California police reported.
Allen Yangkaou Lee, 67, suffered fatal injuries when his 2004 Toyota Corolla flipped after veering to avoid another car at 4:32 p.m. on Thursday, May 9, Irvine police said in a May 14 news release.
The other driver sped off after the crash, police said.
Lee died of his injuries at a hospital on May 13, his family told KTLA.
“He was such a generous and very caring man,” daughter Elaine Lee told the station. “He was everything. It was so sudden and it really does feel like there is a hole. He was ripped from our lives unfairly.”
Lee was driving northbound on Culver Drive when a Honda Civic making a right turn against a red light from Trabuco Road pulled in front of him, police said.
Lee veered around the Civic, then lost control of his Corolla, which hit the center median, a tree and a light pole before rolling onto the roof, police said.
“Thank you to all the people who got out of their cars,” son Eric Lee told KTLA. “Complete strangers reached into a car that was completely twisted metal, crushed. They could’ve cut themselves, maybe they did, and they all tried.”
A Facebook video from Lee’s dashcam before the wreck shows the beige-colored Honda Civic with “unique racing-style decals on the lower doors,” police said.
Investigators ask anyone with information to call detective Christopher Ostrowski at 949-724-7047.
“He was always helping people, so if people can help us find this person so they don’t do this again, I think that would be justice,” Elaine Lee told KTLA.
Irvine is about a 40-mile drive southeast from Los Angeles.
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