Dark tire tracks, bits of wreckage and words scrawled in orange spray paint on a Canyon Country sidewalk provided a chilling narrative Monday of an SUV crash that killed a 15-year-old boy.
Eric Michael Gilhooley, who was on the sidewalk, died at the scene Sunday, said Los Angeles County coroner’s Capt. John Kades.
The 47-year-old driver of a 2004 Chevy Suburban received scratches.
Both Gilhooley and the driver were Canyon Country residents.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies made no arrests. Detectives investigating the crash released few details Monday, except that the Suburban overturned after it hit the curb and that preliminary tests show drugs and alcohol probably weren’t involved.
However, a survey of the scene on Soledad Canyon Road near Gailxy Avenue on Monday showed a clear path of destruction.
The crash happened about 10:20 a.m. Sunday on a wide and gently curving stretch of Soledad Canyon Road where the speed limit is 45 mph. Investigators marked the sidewalk and street with numbers and notes, showing the order of the damage the SUV wrought.
Smears of black rubber marked the curb: “#1” and “#2.”
On the sidewalk: “Ped #3.” A note on the road about 10 yards away read “shoe.”
Beige rubble littered the sidewalk, ripped out of two brick columns that the SUV had hit: “#4” and “#6.” At the base of one of these broken columns, someone left a small green candle in a jar. The wax melted in Monday’s heat.
Half of a splintered tree speared into the air: “#5.”
A torn plastic bag that once contained a medical neck brace was caught in some nearby bushes. Glass, metal, plastic and stone littered the ground throughout the scene.
And finally, an outline of the vehicle showed where it finally came to rest in the road, facing against traffic.
