Hit-run driver sought in crash that killed woman and son, 4

Authorities were searching for a hit-and-run driver who killed a woman and one of her twin 4-year-old sons Tuesday night in Carson and left her husband and the other son hospitalized with serious injuries.

Midi Mikasa, 34, of Carson died at the scene, authorities said. Her son Nathan also died, according to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators said the driver of a pickup truck ran a red light and broadsided the family’s minivan about 9 p.m. on New Year’s Day at Albertoni and Main streets.

The driver ran from the scene and remains at large, said Sgt. Michael Zymkowitz of the Carson sheriff’s station.

“It was a pretty horrific crash,” he said. “Nobody would like to come upon a scene like this involving children.”

Both adults were wearing seat belts and the boys were in child car seats, deputies said.

“Based on the damage to the vehicle, it was a high-speed” crash, Zymkowitz said. “There were no skid marks or anything like that that would indicate the [driver] saw them.”

Mikasa’s husband and surviving son were at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance, where they were listed in critical condition. They were not identified.

Authorities declined to provide details about the suspect or the pickup, which was left at the scene. The collision occurred just south of the 91 Freeway and about four blocks east of the Harbor Freeway.

On Wednesday, a colleague remembered Mikasa -- a petite woman with long, dark hair -- as warm and compassionate, dedicated to her work and devoted to her boys.

From 2004 to 2006, she was a clinical research nurse at the UCLA Center for Vaccine Research, and treated everyone from patients to custodians with kindness, said Susan Partridge, the center’s associate director and Mikasa’s supervisor.

“She was very outgoing toward all. She really got along well with every level of person here,” Partridge said.

At the center, Mikasa experimented with vaccines against anthrax and bird flu and was known for taking meticulous research notes. She left in 2006 to help with a family business, Partridge said.

Mikasa loved spending time with her family and vacationing at Lake Tahoe. Partridge remembered how Mikasa would joke: “Am I ever going to reach a point in my life when I’m not worried about my boys?”

According to Partridge, Mikasa graduated from UCLA in 1995 with a degree in English and American studies; she earned a bachelor’s of science degree in nursing at USC in 2002.

Mikasa was a volunteer worker and active in her church, Partridge said. On one occasion, she left work for several weeks to aid with tsunami relief in Thailand.

Partridge said she was inundated Wednesday with calls from Mikasa’s “broken-hearted” former co-workers.

“Most of the people here were speechless,” Partridge said of the roughly 30-person office, where photos of Mikasa’s twin boys are still posted in the break room. “I don’t think anyone’s gotten much work done today.”

Authorities said that anyone with information about the driver of the pickup is asked to call sheriff’s investigators at (310) 830-1123.

susannah.rosenblatt @latimes.com