Lisa Lopes Car Accident

Lisa Lopes Car Accident, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, member of hip-hop R&B group TLC, was killed in a car accident Thursday in Honduras, her record label reported early Friday. She was 30.

The head-on collision on a treacherous two-lane country road occurred shortly before 6 p.m. outside La Ceiba, a town on the Atlantic coast, said Carlos Bakota, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy.

Lopes, who was driving, died instantly, he said.

The singer was one of eight people in the vehicle at the time of the accident. Three members of Egypt, a new band, were taken to Dantoni Hospital in La Ceiba.

She would have turned 31 next month, according to her Web site.

In an interview on CNN’s “TalkBack Live,” Lopes’ fellow TLC band members, Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, remembered her as a loving, big-hearted, multi-talented woman.

“She was our sister, you know?” said Thomas. “And no matter what we went through, we’re sisters. You know sisters argue, and they kiss and make up and that’s just how our relationship was…Through us, people will always remember Lisa. We’ll always be a group. It doesn’t stop.”

“And she’ll never be replaced,” added Watkins.

Lopes was on vacation in the Central American country, a place she often visited, said TLC manager Bill Diggins. He received a phone call late Thursday from authorities in Honduras, reporting the accident. Diggins said seven other people were in the vehicle at the time of the accident and no one else was injured. He was told that Lopes was killed instantly.

“No words can possibly express the sorrow and sadness I feel for this most devastating loss,” said Antonio “L.A.” Reid, president and CEO of Arista Records, who has known the group for about 10 years. “Lisa was not only a gifted and talented musical inspiration, but more importantly, she was like a daughter to me. My thoughts and prayers are with Lisa’s family and friends. Her legacy will be remembered forever.”

TLC formed in 1991, when Lopes was 20. The group was developed and first managed by Perri “Pebbles” Reid, an R&B star known for her hits “Girlfriend” and “Mercedes Boy” and then married to L.A. Reid.

Lisa Left Eye Lopes

Lisa Left Eye Lopes, Lisa Nicole Lopes (May 27, 1971 – April 25, 2002) better known by her stage name Left Eye, was an American rapper, singer-songwriter, dancer, musician, television hostess, and actress. She is best known as a member of the R&B/Hip-hop girl group TLC.

Lopes contributed her self-written raps to many of TLC’s hit singles, including “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg”, “What About Your Friends”, “Hat 2 da Back”, “No Scrubs”, “Waterfalls”, and “Girl Talk”.

Lopes was often vocal about her personal life and difficult past. She readily admitted that she had come from an abusive, alcoholic background and struggled with alcohol problems herself. These problems became headline news in 1994, when she set fire to Andre Rison’s tennis shoes in a bathtub, which ultimately spread to the mansion they shared, destroying it. Lopes claimed that Rison had beaten her after a night out, and she set fire to his shoes to get back at him. Lopes later revealed that she did not have a lot of freedom within the relationship and was abused mentally and physically, having released all her frustrations on the night of the fire.

Lopes, who was sentenced to five years probation and therapy at a halfway house, was never able to shake the incident from her reputation. Her relationship with Rison continued to make headlines, with rumors of an imminent wedding, later debunked by People magazine. Lopes revealed on the Last Days of Left Eye documentary that her meeting with a struggling mother in rehab left a big impression on her. She subsequently adopted the woman’s 8 year old daughter. Ten years previously, she had adopted a 12 year old boy.

Lopes had several large tattoos. Most prominent was a large eagle on her left arm, which she said represented freedom. Later, she added the number “80” around the eagle, which was Rison’s NFL number while in Atlanta. She also had a tattoo of a moon with a face on her foot in reference to Rison’s nickname, Bad Moon. On her upper right arm was a large tattoo of the name Parron, for her late stepbrother who died in a boating accident, arching over a large tattoo of a pierced heart. Her smallest tattoo was on her left ear and consisted of an arrow pointing to her left over the symbol of an eye, a reference to her nickname.