Today the LA Coroner confirmed that the body in the wreckage of the Tuesday early morning crash was Michael Hastings. The FBI assisted in the identification by providing Hastings’ fingerprints. The FBI also denied that there was an open FBI investigation of Hastings which is contrary to what WikiLeaks attorney Jennifer Robinson claims Hastings told her hours before he died.
As a correspondent during conflict in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Michael Hastings demonstrated a level of fearlessness and focus on getting to truth. His Rolling Stone article on Gen. Stanley McCrystal, The Runaway General, made him a few friends and enemies. Hastings demonstrated solid but not fully developed journalistic chops in that piece. I for one had looked forward to reading more and better from him in the future. Sadly that is not to be.
The LA Times is reporting that prior to his death, Hastings was working on a story concerning the Jill Kelley lawsuit. Not difficult to appreciate that the woman that initiated the chain of events that took down Gen. Petraeus would intrigue Hastings. There’s more to that story than what is currently known, but how much more and how much of it can be obtained are questions for anyone that attempts to pick up from where Hastings left off. Or like questions concerning the accident that killed him, it might be case closed.
— A bit of tinfoil just because I like to briefly wear that hat every once in a while —
There isn’t much that’s curious about Hastings’ accident or stretches the bounds of reasonable interpretations. Fast car, no traffic, young male driver either distracted or impaired by drugs or alcohol. Sad but all too common.
The eye- and ear-witness reports are easy to dismiss because such reports are rarely accurate. More so when events happen more quickly than can be processed. The person that said it sounded “like a bomb exploded” should be discounted or considered as an expected sound when a fire quickly ignites in a car.
Time of accident. Roughly 4:15 am. No reason to speculate that Hastings wasn’t frequently up and about at that time.
Engine and tranny thrown hundreds of feet. Not good for the rep of Mercedes, but an anomaly when car traveling at high speed slams into a brick wall? The base trunks of thick old palm trees don’t bend.
How fast was Hastings driving? Check it out in this LoudLab News webcam. (This video may be misleading as it doesn’t include the moment when the light turned green for the Santa Monica traffic. Prudent drivers in LA know not to proceed for about five seconds after getting a green light. If the captured vehicle, reported to be Hastings,’ was within that five second window, increased speed wouldn’t have been required to catch the next light at Melrose. If outside the window, faster at the time of the crash would be likely.) Crazy fast given LA road maintenance and short distance between signal lights on Highland. And no appearance of a car following Hastings.
Cars don’t ignite easily, but it happens. Apparently either too quickly or Hastings was too incapacitated or trapped to get out. (The Loudlab News video of the crash site begins four or five minutes after the accident.) A disturbingly intense vehicle fire, but a forensic analysis will pinpoint one or more causes — they always do. (The response time from the local resident with the garden hose was quick.)
Nothing to see. Move along. Okay one oddity. What was that LoudLabs News vehicle with its webcam turned on doing sitting on Santa Monica Ave and Highland at four in the morning? Of all the heavily traveled corners in LA, why this one? Dumb luck? (Not unprecedented for news crews.) And who and what is LoudLabs News? Probably nothing but a stray random “dot,” then again maybe a thread.