*Thursday morning saw the release of several 911 calls made in the minutes following a four-car auto accident involving R&B singer Brandy last month.
By Thursday afternoon, investigators had ruled out mechanical malfunction as a cause of the Dec. 30 accident. At around 10:30 a.m. that morning, the singer-actress was driving her Land Rover at 65 mph on the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles when traffic in front of her had slowed down and she struck the vehicle in front of her.
The driver of that vehicle, which hit the median strip and was struck by another car, was rushed to the hospital and died of her injuries the next day.
"There's just been a massive car accident on the 405," one caller told a 911 operator, according to TMZ. "I think there's fatalities or injuries, big time," another said. Listen to the 911 calls here.
TMZ quotes a witness who said Brandy was thoroughly distraught at the accident scene and kept blaming herself."She got upset, talking about how it was all her fault ... she didn't stop, kept saying how she hit the lady," the man said. "Brandy walked in front of traffic, crossing the lanes of speeding cars, then she did it again. People were honking at her to get out of the road. She was obviously disoriented and highly upset."
Brandy, 27, was not arrested for the accident and she has not been charged with a crime. No drugs or alcohol were found at the scene.
The victim, 38-year-old Awatef Aboudihaj of Los Angeles, was married and had one child. Police are trying to figure out what caused her vehicle to careen across four lanes of traffic, turning what could have been a relatively minor crash into a fatal one, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Leland Tang. An inspection of all four vehicles found no mechanical defects, he said.
"We know the person who started the chain reaction was obviously Brandy Norwood," Tang concluded, adding that investigators would spend the next several days sifting through evidence from the scene and conducting further interviews before turning the case over to the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office for review.
He said Brandy has been "fantastically cooperative" with police.
***Call For Entries Reminder***
Hollywood Black Film Festival
June 5 - 10, 2007
Beverly Hills, California
Final Deadline 2/15/07
Accepting feature, short, documentary,
student, animation and music video
submissions, as well as screenplays
for storyteller competition.
310.407.3596 or www.hbff.org
for more info