The Lakers were about to play a key NBA championship game and Charles Beatty didn’t want to miss it. He was rushing to pick up his son when traffic backed up on Central Avenue and he became increasingly annoyed.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go," Beatty recalled shouting at the line of cars. "The light changed a couple of times and it didn't move."
Beatty, then 66, decided he wasn’t going to wait. He crossed into oncoming traffic and got around the cars.
That caught Ronald Orosco's eye.
"He went around the double yellow line," said Orosco, who was 30 at the time.