American ambassador Douglas Kmiec in serious car accident

Sister Mary Campbell from Our Lady of Malibu Catholic Church was killed in a one-car collision at Las Virgenes Canyon Road and Mulholland Drive on Wednesday afternoon.

Monsignor John Sheridan from Our Lady of Malibu, 95, and the former Pepperdine University law professor Douglas Kmiec were injured in the crash. They were reported to be in good condition following surgeries.

Press reports said that California Highway Patrol had limited information about the accident on Wednesday.

The General Workers Union expressed solidarity with Ambassador Kmiec, and wished him a speedy recovery. Labour also issued a statement expressing concern at the news, and sent its best wishes to the diplomat.

Kmiec, one of America's best known scholars and popular commentators on the law, came to Pepperdine after serving several years as dean and St. Thomas More Professor of Law at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and for nearly two decades on the law faculty at the University of Notre Dame.

Kmiec was nominated by President Reagan and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Assistant Attorney General Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), U.S. Department of Justice (1988-89). For several years before his presidential appointment (1985-87), he served together with (now Justice) Samuel A. Alito, Jr. as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in OLC.