Photos by Elliot Cohen, Courtesy SCVTV
UPDATED 2:17 p.m. Tuesday
Mikael Hakansson, 22, is in the Intensive Care Unit at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital after surgery on serious injuries he received in a Monday evening crash in front of Central Park in Saugus.
According to Det. Jeff Maag of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s station traffic unit, Hakansson was traveling southbound on Bouquet Canyon Road at a high rate of speed and split the lane between two cars, striking a white pickup truck that was turning left into the park driveway.
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Maag said that the impact spun Hakansson around and he ended up near the park entrance. He added that witnesses told deputies that the truck had plenty of time to make the turn, but that Hakansson accelerated as he went between the cars.
The driver of the truck, Canyon Country resident Adam Rondou, 28, was not injured.
Hakansson was taken to the hospital, where his condition was initially listed as critical. He underwent surgery Tuesday morning and was moved to Intensive Care. His vital signs are stable.
The northbound lanes of Bouquet Canyon Road at Alamagordo were closed for approximately one hour after the 6 p.m. crash to facilitate the investigation.
On his Facebook page, Hakansson was depicted as a motorcycle racer and listed his employer as Farmers Insurance. He had a brush with the law in September 2010, as The Signal newspaper reported, threatening a sheriff’s deputy who testified against him in traffic court regarding a speeding ticket. When Hakansson lost his case, he approached the deputy and told him that he “knew the deputy’s family” and was arrested outside the courthouse for making criminal threats.