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Breaking Lindsay Lohan crash news, as the LAT reminds us all why we should never believe the first, second, or third through seventeenth things that issue forth from a publicist's mouth:

Investigators said today they do not believe celebrity photographers caused teenage actress Lindsay Lohan to crash her Mercedes-Benz into a delivery truck.

"It was not a factor. It didn't cause the accident," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Scott Gage.

The agency's conclusion contradicts statements made by Lohan's representative, and leaves the official cause of the accident yet to be determined. [...]

"This is another example of the paparazzi endangering citizens, both Ms. Lohan and the other driver in the collision," Leslie Sloane, the actress' spokeswoman, said Tuesday. Sloane could not be reached today.

Not being able to rely on the recent anti-paparazzi backlash certainly presents a problem for Team Lohan (seemed too easy, didn't it?), who now must huddle and think up alternate explanations for how the starlet sent her ill-fated Mercedes to the German auto plant in the sky. Since the paps are now out of play, we expect a new, bolder statement claiming that Lohan believed she was fleeing a reckless motorcade of SUVs carrying terrorists and hurricanes. Investigators will inevitably disprove the excuse, but it should buy Lohan's people enough time to hide all of her money in a Caymanian bank before the delivery van driver can file suit.