Driver held on DUI charge after SUV kills three women outside North Hollywood Metro station

A man was arrested on suspicion of felony drunken driving after police say his SUV jumped a curb and plowed into a crowd of pedestrians and street vendors outside the North Hollywood Metro station Tuesday evening, killing three women and sending at least two more people to the hospital, Los Angeles authorities said.

The crash happened about 5:55 p.m. in the 5300 block of North Lankershim Boulevard, near Chandler Boulevard, just outside the subway and bus terminal, according to reporting by ABC7 Los Angeles. The driver, identified by police as 61-year-old Ihor Demianenko, was heading south on Lankershim when the SUV left the roadway and struck several people on the sidewalk, officers said. He had to be pulled from the wreckage, was hospitalized in critical condition and was conscious but appeared to be in shock, witnesses and officials said.

Demianenko was arrested on suspicion of felony driving under the influence and was being held on bail of more than $6 million, ABC30 Fresno reported Wednesday, citing the Los Angeles Police Department. Police said the three women who died were 40, 53 and 69 years old; their names had not been released as of Wednesday evening pending notification of relatives. Two other people struck in the crash remained hospitalized, and some officials put the number of injured as high as three.

A chaotic scene outside a transit hub

Witnesses described a scene of panic at one of the San Fernando Valley's busiest transit connections, where the Metro B Line subway meets the G Line busway. Gian Barbarona, who was nearby when the SUV hit the curb, said the vehicle missed him by inches and that he initially thought it had driven straight into the station entrance. Aerial news footage showed a wide debris field, overturned fruit carts and several fire engines blocking Lankershim Boulevard.

Witnesses told reporters that at least two of the three women killed were food vendors who had sold snacks and drinks outside the station for years. Noe Orozco, who said he worked alongside the vendors and drove them to and from the station each morning, told ABC7 he found one of his longtime colleagues dead on the sidewalk after the crash. Passengers coming up from the underground platform emerged into the aftermath, and several bystanders called 911 as others tried to help the injured.

The North Hollywood station is the northern terminus of the subway line and a transfer point to a busway serving the San Fernando Valley, making the surrounding sidewalk one of the busiest pedestrian corridors in that part of the city at rush hour. Sidewalk food vending was formally legalized statewide under a 2018 law, and vendors have become a fixture outside many Los Angeles rail stations, often setting up carts and folding tables within a few feet of the curb. That proximity to traffic has repeatedly put vendors in the path of out-of-control vehicles; in July 2025, several food vendors working outside a nightclub in nearby East Hollywood were among roughly 30 people hurt when a driver plowed into a crowd on Santa Monica Boulevard.

Part of a wider pattern on California streets

The crash adds to what city data and federal statistics describe as a persistent problem on Los Angeles streets. A Crosstown analysis of city collision data found that 169 pedestrians were killed in Los Angeles in 2024, more than half of the city's 302 total traffic deaths that year, despite the city's "Vision Zero" pledge a decade ago to eliminate traffic fatalities. Nationally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's most recent Traffic Safety Facts report on pedestrians recorded 7,080 pedestrian deaths in 2024, a 3.9 percent decline from 2023 but still accounting for roughly 18 percent of all traffic fatalities.

The North Hollywood crash also echoes an April case just a few miles away, when a driver was accused of speeding under the influence on Colfax Avenue and striking two pedestrians who had stepped out of a parked car. In that case, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office charged the driver with two counts of murder, with District Attorney Nathan Hochman calling it "an outrageous and preventable loss of two lives." No charges beyond the DUI arrest had been announced in Tuesday's crash as of Wednesday evening, and the county prosecutor's office had not listed the case on its public newsroom.

Officials respond, investigation continues

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell visited the scene and told reporters that detectives had obtained surveillance video from the station and nearby businesses that they planned to review "frame by frame" to determine what caused the SUV to leave the roadway. Investigators had not ruled out any scenario, officials said, and the exact cause of the crash remained unconfirmed more than a day later.

Mayor Karen Bass addressed the crash in a statement issued Tuesday night.

"Tragically, preliminary reports indicate that three people have lost their lives and others have been injured."

Her office said it was coordinating with the Los Angeles Police and Fire departments and with Metro as the investigation proceeded. Metro said train and bus service through the North Hollywood station was operating on a normal schedule Wednesday, though the surrounding streets stayed closed for hours Tuesday night while investigators processed the scene.

What happens next

The intersection of Lankershim and Chandler was closed for hours Tuesday night as LAPD's collision investigators documented the scene, and drivers were directed to use alternate routes. Prosecutors are expected to decide in the coming days whether Demianenko will face charges beyond the DUI arrest, following the pattern set in other recent Los Angeles crashes in which drivers accused of killing pedestrians while intoxicated have later been charged with murder. The identities of the three women killed had not been released as of Wednesday evening, and police said the investigation, including toxicology results and a review of surveillance footage, was continuing.

For the vendors who worked the sidewalk outside the station, the loss was immediate and personal, even as the broader cause of the crash remained under investigation. City officials have not announced any new safety measures for the intersection, though the mayor's office said additional city departments, including transportation officials, were being looped into the response alongside police and fire personnel.