License Applicant, 17, at Wheel : Crash Hurts Driving Tester

A youth taking a driving test Monday in Arleta turned in front of a van and was broadsided, police said. A state employee giving him the test was seriously hurt.

The state worker, Marie Moreno, 38, suffered broken bones and was later listed in fair condition at a hospital.

Moreno was sitting in the passenger seat of the youth’s car when the accident happened about 11 a.m., authorities said. The 17-year-old driver’s-license applicant was traveling northeast on Van Nuys Boulevard and attempted to turn left onto Beachy Avenue. Moreno took the brunt of the collision, Los Angeles police officer Volker Wendlenner said.

Paramedics freed Moreno from the crumpled car and took her to Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills. A hospital spokeswoman said she had a broken pelvis and a broken right knee. Neither the youth taking the test nor the driver of the van was injured, and neither was cited for a traffic violation, police said. The 17-year-old was not identified.

Betty Sorrell, manager of the driver’s license division at the Arleta office of the state Department of Motor Vehicles, where Moreno works, said the accident occurred at the spot where all drivers are tested for making left turns across oncoming traffic.

“It was just a normal test that went wrong,” Sorrell said. “We’re in shock. It’s just lucky that Marie was wearing a seat belt.”

Testing drivers seeking licenses is a hazardous job that occasionally ends in serious accidents, Sorrell said. Moreno had been giving road tests for 1 1/2 years.

The teen-ager failed his driving test. He can try again in two weeks, Sorrell said.