SANTA FE SPRINGS — Two young brothers were killed and their father was badly injured Friday when their Honda Civic crashed into a power pole and was sheared in half, police said.
Damian Medina, 11, and Jonathann Medina, 13, died at the scene of the crash, Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Lt. Larry Dietz said. Their city of residence was listed as Los Angeles.
Jonathann Medina was better known to friends as Nathan.
The 33-year-old driver and father of the boys and witnesses told investigators that another vehicle cut off the Civic, causing it to lose control and hit the pole, Whittier police Lt. Kent Miller in a written statement. The driver’s name was not released.
Police responded at 5:53 p.m. to a 9-1-1 call about a traffic accident on Los Nietos Road, just east of Norwalk Boulevard.
“When officers arrived they found a Honda Civic sheared in half after apparently colliding with a power pole on the south side of Los Nietos Road,” the statement said.
“Witnesses said the victim vehicle crossed the oncoming lanes at high speed. After hitting the pole the front half of the vehicle continued a significant distance from the power pole ending up on the property of a local business.”
The second vehicle did not stop, police added. The speed at which the Civic was traveling when it crashed was unavailable.
Damian Medina was found lying in the middle of the street after being thrown from the car, police said.
Officials found Nathan Medina in the front passenger seat.
It was unclear Saturday whether seat belts were used.
The boys’ father suffered “significant injuries” and was taken to St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, where he was listed in stable condition, officials said.
No description of the second vehicle possibly involved in the crash was available.
Though they were listed with coroner’s officials as Los Angeles residents, friends gathered a roadside memorial Saturday said they spent a lot of time with relatives in Whittier.
Family friend Jasmine Palomo, 17, of Whittier said she’s known the boys most of their lives.
“Yesterday, we went to the market and we passed by (the crash scene),” she said. But she didn’t realize the crash involved people she knew.
Palomo said she was “heartbroken” to find out the crash involved the Medina family, and that Damian and Nathan were dead.
“Nathan always used to call me his big sister,” she said. “And I called him my little brother.”
Nathan enjoyed playing basketball, friends said.
“He also liked music. He was always dancing,” Palomo said, adding that the teen was especially fond of techno music.
Damien was a fan of video games, often carrying around his Nintendo DS, she said. “Me and Damien would always talk about video games.”
The brothers had a close relationship with one another, Palomo said.
Nathan Medina was an eighth-grader at Los Nietos Middle School, while Damian was in sixth grade at Aeolian Elementary School, said Marie Luisa Gamboa, who knew Nathan from his school, where she works as a special education assistant.
Though Nathan was goofy, funny and fun-loving, he was always “extremely respectful,” Gamboa said.
“He always made people laugh,” friend Mckayla Reyes, 13, of Santa Fe Springs, who went to school with Nathan.
“He had a smile on his face every day,” added another classmate, 13-year-old Kimberly Marquez.
The investigation into the cause of the crash was ongoing, police said.
Anyone with information was asked to contact the Whittier Police Department, which provides police services to Santa Fe Springs, at 562-567-9200.
– Brian Day and Ruby Gonzales
