Full Notification

A Woodland Hills man was arrested after causing a traffic collision injuring several people in Northridge, after first being spotted reckless driving in Calabasas.


A concerned motorist saw a man driving erratically and called Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff's Station shortly before 8:00 PM Friday evening, concerned that the driver was going to cause a traffic collision and injure someone.

Within minutes, a sheriff's sergeant spotted the 2010 Mazda sedan as he entered the eastbound 101 freeway at Malibu Canyon Road, Calabasas, and saw that it was swerving in and out of traffic . The sergeant pulled his vehicle in behind the driver on the 101 freeway onramp as the Mazda continued to swerve back and forth from curb to curb of the onramp.

The sergeant activated the red lights and siren of his sheriff's vehicle while following the suspect on the 101 freeway. The driver, after some hesitation, finally pulled over several hundred yards from the onramp. As the sergeant approached the suspect’s car, the driver speed away with the emergency flashers of the Mazda activated.

The heavy traffic on the freeway delayed the sergeant’s ability to catch up to the suspect for several minutes, but eventually the suspect was spotted again. By now the driver had turned off all of his vehicle’s lights and was travelling down the freeway completely blacked out in the darkness. These extremely dangerous actions contributed to the already reckless driving of the suspect and was endangering the safety of other motorists and himself.

The sergeant was soon joined by another sheriff's deputy, and together they followed the suspect on the freeway to the White Oak Avenue off ramp where they again activated the lights and sirens of their radio cars in an attempt to get the driver to pull over and stop.

The suspect continued to ignore the deputies’ attempts to stop him and continued weaving recklessly through traffic on White Oak Avenue. He turned westbound onto Victory Boulevard and then turned northbound onto Reseda Boulevard. He ignored 5-6 red traffic lights on Reseda Boulevard, until he eventually crashed into four other vehicles on eastbound Nordhoff Street just west of Balboa Boulevard in Northridge.

The suspect was trapped in his car due to the damage it sustained in the collision he had caused. Up to six other people in four cars suffered injuries in the collision due to the suspect’s reckless driving. Preliminarily, their injuries appear to be minor to moderate, with no apparent life threatening injuries.

Northridge is in the city of Los Angeles, so the traffic collision investigation will be handled by the Los Angeles Police Department.

The suspect was identified as 57-year old Rene Barrantes of Woodland Hills. The collision investigation revealed that he was driving on a suspended driver’s license. He was booked at the Inmate Reception Center of the Los Angeles County Jail and will be charged with:

Reckless Driving
Evading a Peace Officer
Driving on a Suspended License
And a possible charge of Driving Under the Influence pending tests for drugs and/or alcohol.

His bail is set at $75,000.




Watch Comander, RE
Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff's Station
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
818-878-1808


Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau, MP
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
www.lasd.org


Leroy D. Baca, Sheriff
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department




Partner to prevent or report crime by contacting your local Sheriff’s station. Or if you wish to remain Anonymous, call “LA Crime Stoppers” by dialing 800-222-TIPS (8477), texting the letters TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637), or using the website http://lacrimestoppers.org

To receive more detailed, up-to-date information directly from the LASD via e-mail, register for "Nixle" alerts at www.Nixle.com or more directly at https://local.nixle.com/register/ and register for "LASD – Headquarters Newsroom (SHB), Los Angeles County Sheriff" and your local LASD station area. Or, text your zip code to 888777 to receive text alerts only. Standard text messaging rates may apply depending on your calling plan.