Car Jumps Off Los Angeles Freeway, Crushes Transient

A car shot off the side of a Los Angeles freeway and landed on a homeless encampment Tuesday, crushing to death a woman and injuring three people inside the car, authorities said. The Honda sedan went over the right shoulder of southbound Interstate 405 in Van Nuys shortly after 6 p.m., California Highway Patrol Officer Elizabeth Kravig said. It ran about 20 feet down an embankment and hit the encampment, a dirt area surrounded by trees and brush. The scene was littered with clothing, water bottles and trash. "A transient or some kind of pedestrian got wedged underneath the vehicle," Kravig said.