64-Year-Old Man Dies Teaching Teen Daughter How to Drive
The 15-year-old girl was practicing driving with her dad, identified by police as James Politoski, in a Gelson's Market parking lot, which has parking spots along a 40-foot embankment facing the Pacific Coast Highway.
The Laguna Beach Police Department said the car drove through the fence and fell off the hill, flipping over and landing on its roof on a sidewalk below.
Politoski, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was pronounced dead at the scene. The teenager, who had a permit, was taken to a hospital with serious injuries but is in stable condition as of Tuesday morning, Lt. Jesse Schmidt told The Epoch Times.
Police confirmed the driver and passenger were father and daughter, and Laguna Beach residents. Photos from the scene suggest the car was a Volkswagen Beetle. No one else was injured.
'It is really tragic,' said Schmidt. 'Somebody lost their life being a good parent.'
Related Stories
5/27/2025
5/26/2025
Schmidt told The Epoch Times that driving around the parking lot was part of their regular practice route.
'It was a father-daughter driving lesson. She's a permitted driver, and Dad was taking her out on a normal route that they had practiced before. Just a really tragic accident, really is what it comes down to.'
The accident was reported just before 4:15 p.m. between Wesley and Montage Resort drives. The accident is currently an ongoing investigation, police said. No other injuries were reported.
'Our condolences go out to the family and the loved ones around this that are affected,' he added. 'This doesn't just affect their family, it affects the whole community.'
Reinforcing the fence around the parking lot facing the cliff is not out of the question, said Schmidt, but that conversation hasn't been instigated with property owners yet, citing the ongoing investigation.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Afternoon Briefing: Suspect in ‘ICE rules' vandalism in Little Village in custody
Good afternoon, Chicago. A Cook County judge ordered a man to remain in custody this morning after the man allegedly shot and killed his daughter-in-law following a wedding in Schaumburg Friday night. Roland Schmidt, 76, of Stillman Valley near Rockford, was taken into custody by Schaumburg police after the department responded to a report of a shooting at 50 N. Martingale Road around 10:15 p.m. Schmidt and his daughter-in-law, Christine Moyer, 45 of Galena, Ohio, were in the parking lot of the Marriott hotel when the shooting happened. An investigation by police determined that Moyer and Schmidt were both attending a wedding at the hotel. Schmidt followed Moyer outside the hotel as she left the event and shot her in the head. Schmidt was upset with Moyer over her filing divorce paperwork against his son, police said. Here's what else is happening today. And remember, for the latest breaking news in Chicago, visit and sign up to get our alerts on all your devices. Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History A 38-year-old man was in custody and charges were pending against him for allegedly spray painting three buildings in Little Village with swastikas and 'ICE rules' graffiti, police sources said. Read more here. More top news stories: It's going to cost more to watch the Cubs on Comcast next season. Read more here. More top business stories: Billy Donovan has a 195-205 record with one playoff appearance in five seasons as the Bulls' coach. Read more here. More top sports stories: Las Carnitas Uruapan La Villita, the newest Mexican restaurant by the first family of pork in Chicago, brings 50 years of tradition and transformation to a flagship committed to the community in Little Village. Read more here. More top Eat. Watch. Do. stories: Pope Leo XIV, the Chicago-born math major, is said to have a head for numbers and his agenda in his first weeks in office has been filled with meetings of the Vatican's various financial entities. Read more here. More top stories from around the world:
NBC Sports
6 days ago
- NBC Sports
Ineos-Grenadiers staff member David Rozman leaves Tour de France over doping allegation links
COURCHEVEL, France — Ineos-Grenadiers soigneur David Rozman has left the Tour de France in the wake of media reports linking him to disgraced German doctor Mark Schmidt, the convicted head of an international blood doping ring. Rozman 'has stepped back from race duties and has left the Tour,' Ineos-Grenadiers said in a statement provided to The Associated Press on Thursday, noting that Rozman had received a request from the International Testing Agency (ITA) to attend an interview. It comes following reports alleging Rozman exchanged incriminating text messages with Schmidt going back to June 2012. Ineos-Grenadiers was racing as Team Sky at the time, when Rozman worked with 2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, and Chris Froome, who won four Tour titles with the British team. There was no suggestion any of them engaged in illegal activity. Soigneurs are part of the support team staff, with a focus on the riders' welfare. Schmidt was convicted of treating cyclists and winter-sports athletes with blood doping for years at the culmination of the Operation Aderlass criminal investigation in 2021. Schmidt, who previously worked for the Gerolsteiner cycling team, was accused of violating drug and doping laws in nearly 150 cases from his medical practice in Erfurt, Germany. German broadcaster ARD linked Rozman – without specifically naming him – to Schmidt in a documentary aired last month, when it alleged that a man working for Ineos-Grenadiers had in 2012 exchanged incriminating messages with Schmidt according to chat logs from the Operation Aderlass trial in Munich. Journalist Paul Kimmage, a former rider, subsequently named Rozman in a piece he wrote for the Irish Independent newspaper, and other outlets followed suit. Ineos-Grenadiers said Thursday it was aware of the allegations but had not received any evidence nor had it been asked to take part in any inquiry. It said Rozman was informally contacted by an ITA staff member in April 2025 'about alleged historical communications' and Rozman immediately notified the team. 'Although the ITA assured David at the time that he was not under investigation, Ineos promptly commissioned a thorough review by an external law firm,' the team said. 'The team has acted responsibly and with due process, taking the allegations seriously whilst acknowledging that David is a long-standing, dedicated member of the team. The team continues to assess the circumstances and any relevant developments, and has formally requested any relevant information from the ITA.'
Epoch Times
6 days ago
- Epoch Times
State Department Condemns Russia for Repression of Falun Gong
WASHINGTON—The State Department on Thursday condemned Russian authorities' escalating repression against Falun Gong after a Moscow court sentenced a practitioner of the faith group to four years in prison. 'The United States condemns the Russian government's actions targeting and repressing members of religious minorities, including Falun Gong practitioners,' a State Department spokesperson told The Epoch Times. 'We urge Russia to respect the right of all to exercise the freedom of religion or belief. All religious minorities should be able to enjoy freedom of religion and assembly without interference.' A Moscow court a day earlier sentenced 47-year-old Natalya Minenkova to four years in prison for her role in a local Falun Gong organization, which had been declared 'undesirable' under a controversial 2015 law that critics say has allowed for politically motivated prosecutions targeting international nonprofits. Earlier in the week, Russian authorities in Siberia raided the home of another Falun Gong practitioner and confiscated the person's phone and laptop. The escalation against the group, which has been severely persecuted in China since 1999, comes as Moscow and Beijing have forged closer ties in recent years. Minenkova, assistant manager for a dental equipment supplier, had been detained since her arrest in May last year, weeks before Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping visited Moscow. She is one of eight Falun Gong practitioners targeted under the 2015 law. Under the law, Russian prosecutors also labeled seven Falun Gong-related organizations as 'undesirable.' Five of these are based in the United States. Besides Minenkova, Zhu Yun from Siberia's Tomsk was sentenced to three years in prison on June 27 for his affiliation with one of the seven targeted organizations, the U.S.-based World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, which investigates forced organ harvesting activities in China. In November 2024, Oksana Shchetkina from southern Russian city Pyatigorsk, received a two-year prison term over her association with the nonprofit, Friends of Falun Gong. Three others, who remain in detention, include Mikhail Antonenko and Mikhail Sinitsyn from Krasnodar, who founded their local Falun Dafa Association—which has since disbanded over prosecution fears; and Moscow resident Gennady Pavlovich Buslov. Two more men were punished for participating in Falun Gong-related activities. Ildar Maksinyaev, a Mordovian villager, was sentenced to 400 hours of compulsory labor, and Denis Shibankov, from northeastern city Yaroslavl, was handed 300 hours, which the appeals court later reduced to 80. Around the same time as Minenkova's arrest, Moscow police raided several Falun Gong practitioners' homes and publicized the acts on their official Telegram channel. In one video, officers tackled a young man to the ground and knelt on his back. The man was the brother of a Falun Gong practitioner. 'CCP Is Afraid of This' In court on July 23, Minenkova spoke about how she had benefited from practicing Falun Gong over the past decade. Her stomach issues, sore throat, and chronic tonsillitis, and her relationship with her sister, who she had long quarreled with, improved. She said she was in court not because she committed any crime, but rather, because the Chinese Communist Party holds a 'lever of control' over Russia and can, 'with the hands of law enforcement agencies and judges,' persecute innocent people far beyond the Chinese territory. 'Today I am in the dock, and my friends are under investigation in different cities, because we are telling the truth about the repression of Falun Gong. And the CCP is afraid of this.' She ended by saying that she believes in following what's right. 'There is a principle in the universe: good will be rewarded with good, and evil will be punished. It works regardless of whether we believe in it or not.'
