Treasures of the Valley

Death, and Resurrection, In La Tuna Canyon – Part 1

It was May 1971, and everything looked great for Debbie Chevalier and her friends. They were seniors at Crescenta Valley High School, all of them winners. Prom was over and they anxiously awaited graduation. Debbie was engaged to her handsome high school sweetheart, Dennis Broberg.

On a Sunday night, Dennis was driving a group of friends home from Burbank coming home to CV through La Tuna Canyon. Dennis had a beautiful 1955 Chevy Nomad station wagon. He was driving, his fiancé Debbie was sitting next to him in the center front seat and Larry Goff was next to her. Jeff Barnes was in the back seat.

Meanwhile, in Tujunga a 13-year-old boy, Barney, was in the mood for a joyride. He and a 15-year-old friend snagged the keys to his uncle’s ’61 Chevy. They stopped long enough to pick up another friend and they tore off into the night, the 13-year-old behind the wheel. They probably careened down Tujunga Canyon Road and turned right onto La Tuna Canyon and floored it up the grade. Somehow Barney maintained control through the curves as he flew down the canyon road. He made the curve by the debris basin, over the last little hill and floored it again as he came to the straightaway of La Tuna Canyon Road. He was now doing 100 miles per hour.

The 55 Nomad traveling east was just approaching Elben Avenue at 50 mph. Debbie chose that moment to crawl over the front seat into the rear seat to sit next to Jeff. Dennis, driving the Nomad, probably saw the ’61 Chevy careening around the last curve toward them and losing control. The ’61 Chevy drifted across the center divider and glanced off the car driving in front of the Nomad. There was no time to react.

The ’61 Chevy hit the Nomad head-on with incredible impact at 100 mph.

The Chevy was slightly less sturdy than the Nomad and the front of the car completely collapsed into the front seat area. Barney, the driver, was crushed behind the steering wheel and decapitated. The passenger next to him was thrown to the floorboards and crushed there. The boy in the backseat came out the best with just broken bones.

In the Nomad, things were just as bad. Dennis, the driver, died instantly when his neck snapped. Larry, the boy in the passenger seat, was ejected from the car when the door flew off and he tumbled down the road. Miraculously he only had minor injuries. The passenger in the backseat flew forward, hit the windshield then caromed around the vehicle, smashing his torso and head.

But the weirdest thing happened to Debbie. She was in the process of crawling over the front seat when the cars hit. The rear seat was designed to flip forward, folding flat to carry cargo. As the seat flipped forward in the impact, Debbie was pushed by the impact’s force down to the rear floor. The seat folded flat on top of her, and she was crushed against the floor beneath the seat.

The firemen and ambulances pulled the lifeless remains of Dennis and Jeff from the Nomad wreckage and the two dead kids from the Chevy. They had no idea that Debbie was still trapped unseen in the twisted car.

By chance, a good friend of Debbie’s and her friends happened upon the scene just then. He saw the bodies of his friends but, knowing how inseparable Dennis and Debbie were, told the rescue crews that Debbie must still be inside the wreckage. They started cutting into the wrecked Nomad and found Debbie, crushed into a tiny space, barely five inches high. Her ribcage was flattened, pelvis snapped in half, spleen and liver crushed, and multiple other bones broken. But she was still alive.

Debbie was given five pints of blood and was in a coma for two weeks.

Next week, I’ll write about how her school rallied behind her. I’ll tell the story of her recovery and how she went on, seemingly resurrected, to serve a greater purpose.

Mike Lawler is the former
president of the Historical
Society of the Crescenta Valley
and loves local history.
Reach him at lawlerdad@yahoo.com.