Lindsay Lohan and an unidentified female friend suffered minor injuries Tuesday when the star's Mercedes crashed into another vehicle during a chase through West Hollywood that involved paparazzi, according to police and eyewitness accounts..
The Mean Girls star, 19, was driving a black convertible Mercedes shortly before 5 p.m. "when she collided into the passenger side of a maroon Chevrolet Astro van that was apparently turning in front of her," according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The impact also deployed the driver and passenger air bags in Lohan's car. According to the sheriff, "Miss Lohan and her female passenger (were) transported by ambulance to a local hospital for treatment of minor injuries." The male driver of the van was taken to the hospital with "moderate injuries."
The chase reportedly began after Lohan had a late lunch with friends at the Ivy Restaurant and then embarked on a shopping expedition that took Lindsay to a clothing store. "Paparazzi were outside the window following her, and she got in her car and zipped off," New Orleans resident Richard Starr, who was in California with his wife, Katherine, said.
"She came up the street like a bat out of hell," says Katherine Starr. "She was nailing it. The guy she hit was making a U-turn to get into his parking place." The collision caused the van to spin around in the street and then hit a parked truck, according to the sheriff's report. "There was smoke everywhere," said Katherine. "Lindsay jumped out and ran to the antique store."
The van driver, whose name has not been released, will "probably be alright, but he's pretty banged up," said Kirk Martin, manager of the Newsroom Cafe, where the driver works. A witness inside the ER of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center stated that Lohan and her female friend were taken inside a private room at the facility. "She wasn't crying, but she seemed upset. Mad. She wanted to get out of there," he said.
Said another witness: "She was in and out in 45 minutes. She had a couple of scratches on her legs, but she was totally fine. She was wheeling around having fun. Her friend was pushing her through the hallways." That witness added: "By the time she left, there were six or eight girlfriends with her ... all 19- or 20-year-olds."
A source close to Lohan said: "She's shaken up. She's rallying her friends around her for support." Lohan's rep, Leslie Sloane, said: "This is another example of the paparazzi endangering citizens, both Ms. Lohan and the other driver involved in the collision. As the matter is still under investigation, we cannot comment further at this time."
This was Lohan's second such paparazzi-related incident. On May 31 she emerged unscathed from a crash in which a photographer was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after hitting her car while allegedly following her, according to Los Angeles police.
Posted by Lawren at October 5, 2005 08:49 AM
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Nice spin Lohan's people attempted on this. She's a selfish, 19-year-old brat who obviously didn't give a damn about her victim and wasn't "shaken-up" in the least. The good news is that the van driver will make-out well assuming he's legal. The reports said the van was a crap-mobile covered in "Mexican" (as opposed to Spanish I'm guessing) writing.
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Nanc' at October 5, 2005 09:42 AM
I admit paparazzi have gone too far (and we as a society encourage them by buying magazines and watching Entertainment Tonight) but maybe the solution is to revoke her drivers license.
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Brian D. at October 5, 2005 11:05 AM
Did anyone see that the Terminator signed a bill into law yesterday which provided harsher punishmennt to papparazzi involved in these escapades? I doubt is in effect yet, so just like the flood of bankruptcy's being filed before the new law takes effect (about two weeks), maybe we will see some extra-agressive celeb coverage in Cali before the new law hits the books.
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ren at October 5, 2005 11:21 AM
IT makes no sense it is clearly her fault and this had nothing to do with the paparazzi so they can't pin it on them just b/c the were taking pics (on foot) doesn't mean she can speed like that. this is ridiculous.
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ERIN at October 5, 2005 02:32 PM
Yeah the Lindsay Lohan Law goes into effect on Jan 1, 2006. At this rate she'll have one more vehicular accident before it goes into effect.
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Brian D. at October 5, 2005 05:19 PM