The 23-year-old man leaving a New Year’s Eve party, who was struck by a vehicle and killed Tuesday morning on PCH in Pacific Palisades, has been identified as Jeff Herle of West L.A. “So far, in our investigation it seems he went to a New Year’s Eve celebration at Gladstone’s,” said Los Angeles Police Department Investigator Olin Osborne, noting that the restaurant’s name was written on a wristband worn by the victim. Herle, who police believe was intoxicated, was 120 feet north of Tahiti Avenue–near Palisades Bowl–when he was struck at 2:55 a.m., according to officials. The collision sent him on top of the hood of the car and he was carried more than 100 feet, said LAPD Collision Investigator Virgil Castor. Los Angeles Fire Department personnel pronounced him dead at the scene at 3:06 a.m., Castor said. Osborne said that investigators are not sure how Herle ended up so far from Gladstone’s, which is about a mile from where the collision took place. “He was walking southbound along the curb on PCH and staggered on the roadway in front of the oncoming car,” Castor said. Police were already nearby working a separate traffic collision on Temescal Canyon Road near PCH “involving two vehicles and two parties” who were transported to Cedar-Sinai Medical Center for injuries, Castor said. 
 The 42-year-old driver of the 1999 Lexus ES350 that struck Herle was questioned and released, Osborne said, adding that the driver was not intoxicated and was on his way home to Inglewood. “We are also investigating the state of his license to see if it was expired,” he said. The LAPD West Traffic Division is investigating the incident.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
