Fatal crash: Salma Hayek's younger brother behind wheel

Salma Hayek. Photo/AP

The younger brother of actress Salma Hayek was involved in a fatal car crash in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Sami Hayek, 40, was driving a 2006 Ford GT sports car eastbound on Sunset Boulevard around 4.50pm when he lost control of the vehicle, crossed into the westbound lanes and hit a 2011 Toyota Tacoma pickup, police said.

Hayek's unidentified male passenger died at the scene while Hayek was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre for several broken ribs and facial lacerations.

Authorities were still trying to contact the victim's next of kin, and will not release his name until then.

He was described as a 43-year-old resident of Mexico.

The driver of the pickup, 20-year-old Alvin Javier Gomez, was also taken to the hospital for a broken foot and body pain.

Authorities still don't know what caused Hayek to cross over the yellow line. The investigation is on-going.

Sami and older sister Salma were born to parents Diana Jimenez Medina, an opera singer and talent scout, and Sami Hayek Dominguez, a businessman who once ran for mayor of Coatzacoalcos, Mexico.

Hayek currently runs his own design studio in Los Angeles, but originally started off studying business administration at Pepperdine.

While studying abroad at the University's Florence campus one year, he had a sudden change of heart.

"I stood up, turned my test in, walked to a phone booth woke my dad up and said, I'm out," Hayek told People.

He told his father he was going to be a painter, sculptor or architect, to which is father responded: "Your head is not right."

But his jump into the creative field paid off, and he has since designed furniture for the likes of Brad Pitt.

He is married to jewellery-designer Daniela Villegas and the two live in a home in the Hollywood Hills.

- Daily Mail