83-year-old pedestrian killed crossing Glendale street

An 83-year-old man was killed Monday afternoon after he was struck by a 40-year-old motorist at an unmarked crosswalk in central Glendale, police said.

The man, who officials had not identified Tuesday pending the notification of his family, was taken to Glendale Adventist Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

He was walking about 4:10 p.m. in an unmarked, but legal, crosswalk at Broadway and Maynard Street when the motorist, who was driving west on Broadway, allegedly failed to yield and struck him. The motorist, Sana Hussein, of Glendale, was driving a minivan and remained at the scene, police said.

The man’s death is the first pedestrian fatality in Glendale this year, but the second traffic-related fatality, according to police.

Yeghisha Keshishian, 88, of Glendale, died of injuries sustained Nov. 5 when her daughter allegedly drove through a red light at Central Avenue and Chevy Chase Drive and struck another car, Lorenz said. Keshishian was a passenger.

The collision forced her daughter’s car to careen into the side of the West Coast Cash building, shattering the glass storefront.

That case will eventually be presented to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office for consideration of manslaughter charges against her daughter, Lorenz said.

There have been 88 pedestrian-involved accidents so far this year, according to Police Department statistics. That number is down by only one from the same time last year.

Still, the number has decreased significantly from several years ago, when Glendale consistently ranked among similarly sized cities as having one of worst records for accidents involving pedestrians 65 and older, according to the California Office of Traffic Safety.

Last year, Tonya Kisishvili, 70, of Glendale, died in a hospital several days after suffering major injuries when she stepped off a curb on Central Avenue and was struck by a delivery truck, police said.

Witnesses told police the truck was traveling south on Central Avenue at about 25 mph in the second lane and was approaching the intersection at California Avenue when she stepped off the curb against a red light, Lorenz said.

--Veronica Rocha, Times Community News