LAPD Accident Investigator Witnesses Collision at Eagle Blvd. and York

By City News Service

The driver of a Lexus attempted to make a U-turn in front of a tow truck on an Eagle Rock street, causing a noisy crash that trapped the car's female passenger and sent her to a hospital for treatment of injuries, all in front of a Los Angeles police accident investigator.

The accident occurred at 9:55 p.m. Sunday at York and Eagle Rock boulevards, said Officer William Brown of the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Traffic Division. He and another officer had finished another investigation and were stopping for coffee.

"We actually heard and saw the call," Brown said. "I heard a crash, saw the tow truck on the sidewalk and saw the Lexus spinning in the intersection."

(Editor's note: While it is not clear if it was the accident the officers were investigating, a pedestrian was struck and killed only a few blocks away on Eagle Rock Blvd. a few hours earlier. Click here for the story.)

A woman was trapped in the car's passenger seat until firefighters freed her, he said. The woman, the Lexus driver and the tow truck driver were transported to hospitals for treatment of injuries, none of them major. A backseat Lexus passenger did not appear to be injured, Brown said.