202002.13
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Video captures car going airborne in Long Beach after hitting traffic circle

by in News

A car speeding through a Long Beach neighborhood early Thursday slammed into a boulder on the median of a bike loop, sending the vehicle and the rock flying through the air, video footage of the crash shows.

Police said the car jumped a curb, then hit the decorative rock at around 2 a.m. at the intersection of Fourth Street and Daisy Avenue.

Officials haven’t said how fast the car was going, but the collision was powerful enough to launch the car several hundred feet away. It was left with significant front end damage.

The rock also was propelled a short distance, striking at least one other car and damaging it. The moment of impact was captured by a home security camera at the northeast corner of the intersection.

The driver, 27-year-old Marisela Ovalle of Gardena, was evaluated at the scene by firefighters. She was uninjured.

Long Beach police officers arrested Ovalle on suspicion of misdemeanor driving under the influence. She was booked on $30,000 bail, then released on her own recognizance, according to Los Angeles County sheriff’s booking records. She has not yet been charged.

The boulder was put back in place after the crash. The only other part of the median that was damaged was a water valve that was “sheared off,” said Arantxa Chavarria, a Long Beach police spokeswoman.

The bike loop that Ovalle smashed into was one of seven similar traffic circles constructed along a stretch of Daisy Avenue from 3rd Street to 6th Street.

The route is part of the 9.5-mile Daisy Bike Boulevard connecting North Long Beach and downtown. Construction on the boulevard was completed in December 2018.

Bike loops along the route have traffic lights with in-ground detectors installed to warn drivers of cyclists waiting to enter the circle, said Jennifer Carey, a spokeswoman for the Long Beach Department of Public Works.

The circles were built over several years to slow down traffic and make Daisy Avenue a haven for bicyclists traversing the city.

Numerous other traffic circles also have been installed throughout the city in recent years as “traffic calming” measures that city officials hope will slow down drivers and lead to fewer pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

Carey said the boulder that Ovalle ran into was one placed there as landscaping. Not all of the medians necessarily have boulders — Carey said the types of landscaping might “vary based on the size, location and community input.”

“Typically traffic circles are landscaped with drought-tolerant plants, trees and in some cases boulders/rocks,” she said.