USC Student from Montecito Killed in Hit-Run Crash

Santa Barbara High graduate Adrianna Bachan and another pedestrian were struck in a crosswalk near the Los Angeles campus

By Lara Cooper, Noozhawk Staff Writer | updated logo 7 p.m. Tuesday | Published on 03.30.2009

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Adrianna Bachan, a USC freshman and Santa Barbara High graduate, was killed early Sunday in Los Angeles after she was struck by a motorist running a red light.

Bachan, 19, of Montecito, was killed and Marcus Garfinkle, 19, of Scottsdale, Ariz., was seriously injured when they were run over as they walked in a crosswalk at Jefferson Boulevard at Hoover Street, on the north side of the USC campus. The incident occurred around 3 a.m. as the pair returned to campus after attending neighborhood parties.

According to Los Angeles police reports, the students were hit by a black or charcoal gray, 1999-2002 Honda Accord or Toyota Corolla. Several witnesses reported that after the car struck the pedestrians, it continued down the street with Garfinkle on the hood. According to witness accounts, the driver stopped and a passenger in the front seat got out, threw the student to the ground, got back in the car and the vehicle sped away. Bachan remained in the road.

Bachan was transported to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Garfinkle is hospitalized at California Hospital Medical Center in serious but stable condition.

As of Monday, no arrests have been made. Police said witnesses described the passenger as a Hispanic male, and officers said the car likely has evidence of damage to the hood and windshield.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a $10,000 reward for information leading to the hit-and-run driver. The reward is contingent on a conviction in the case.

According to the USC Daily Trojan, Bachan was an environmental studies major and a new member of Pi Beta Phi sorority. She was captain of the Santa Barbara High girls’ soccer team her senior year and played on the 2007-08 Santa Barbara Soccer Club Girls Under 19 Premier team coached by Lloyd Biggs, and was a longtime snow-cone booth volunteer at the Children’s Creative Project’s I Madonnari festival at the Santa Barbara Mission.

— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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» Oh my God on 03.30.09 @ 10:07 AM

I had to read the third paragraph three times because I just cannot believe something so evil could be so true. My heart goes out to the Bachman and Garfinkle families. Having made that same walk in that same intersection countless times, I cannot believe it.

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» 'Alice Scott on 03.30.09 @ 01:28 PM

My heart and prayers go out to the Adrianna Bachan and Garfikle families. I have watched Adrianna play soccer with my grandchildren…a full of life lovely girl with a world of potential..snuffed out by some irresponsible, substance abuser and his passenger both with no morals….they need to be removed from society.
HUG YOUR LOVED ONES…WE KNOW NOT WHAT TOMORROW MAY BRING.

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» Kathleen on 03.30.09 @ 05:21 PM

Something has ro be done about the lawlessness that claimed the life of that beautiful USC student, with her whole life ahead of her. Los Angeles, with its drive-by shootings and its hit-and-runs combined with its drunk drivers and drug abusers, is way past a state of emergency. My God. my heart goes out to that poor mother, standing on a street corner with a broken heart that will be broken forever, all because of these lawless creeps. Please God, help that mother and the family deal with the pain of this unimaginable loss.

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» neighborhoodwatchbear on 03.30.09 @ 06:07 PM

Neighborhoodwatchbear Tue Mar 31 2009 00:20 I graduated from SC in 1993 with my Master’s in Public Administration and a minor in Criminal Justice Administration. . Red lights, stop signs, rules of the road mean NOTHING!!!! in Los Angeles and especially around USC. The Los Angeles Police do NOTHING!!! around the campus to enforce traffic laws. As a result, Angeleno’s feel they are immune to arrest and prosecution. I read the comments saying that this could have happened anywere. Not so. Other communites like Fullerton, Glendora, Simi, enforce their traffic laws. One of the victims was from Arizona. Arizona Highway Patrol is one of the most aggressive and effective agencies on the highways anywhere. You can’‘t say that about LAPD or the CHP.
USC students, faculty, alumni staff and most especially PARENTS have been too quiet too long about the lack of LAPD enforcement in the area. We all need to speak up to President Sample and to Police Chief Bratton and god help us the Mayor for more enforcement around USC.

Californians are the most taxed people in the nation. Angelinos are among the most taxed in the state. And USC is not cheap either. We are all paying way too much not to have a safe community. Our students could go to UCI and live in a great community, go to a great UC school and live in the much safer community of Irvine.

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» chris montan on 03.30.09 @ 06:58 PM

We need everyone in the community to help try to identify the driver and passenger. Their level of indifference and callousness is a terrible blow to our city and to the victim’s parents.

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» ex losangelenian on 03.31.09 @ 04:24 AM

What a terrible tragedy indeed.  While USC may be a great school, the area around it is not and I would be scared to death to send my child there for college.

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» Solid Citizen on 03.31.09 @ 05:04 AM

Where’s the fence?

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» Graig Larsen on 03.31.09 @ 05:10 AM

Such a tragic story.  My heart goes out to family and friends of this young woman.  An entire community mourns her loss.  I hope the young men involved in this “accident” somehow are touched with the gravity of what was done here and pay a steep price for their recklessness and callousness.

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» sophia on 03.31.09 @ 06:13 AM

oh My God , my heart goes out to this Mother, its heartbreaking, how anyone can have no regard for human life . I pray for the capture of the monster that left two injured people on the road with no help. My prayers to both families, I can not get this story out of my head its terrible.

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» Thrasymachus on 03.31.09 @ 07:40 AM

Hey, he was just doing a job no American would do.

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» J. Rodriguez on 03.31.09 @ 09:42 AM

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Bachman and Garfinkle families.  As a USC alumna, I am very familiar with that intersection.  My worst experience in crossing it was being mugged 30 years ago.  Never would I have thought that something so senseless, tragic, and cold-hearted could occur to two students on their way home.  I agree with neighborhoodwatchbear that people have been too quiet for too long about seeking greater enforcement for the area. 

*note to moderator:  please remove the comments made by ‘Mendoza’.  Even translated, they are innapropriate, irrelative, and offensive given the sincerity of other postings.

[Editor’s note: Thanks.]

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» Franklin on 04.01.09 @ 06:04 PM

One thing that burns me up about the crime wave in Los Angeles is that Chief Bratton keeps issuing periodic broadcasts about how safe the city is. In fact, he proudly boasts the city is as safe as it was in the 1950s. I cringe because I always fear that people from other areas will hear that, believe that, and ultimately become a victim of that travesty of the truth.
Chief Bratten, you ought to be ashamed of your self.

Franklin

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