Chain Reaction Collision Hurts 10

Oct 9, 2005 10:01 pm US/Pacific
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (KCBS) Police arrested a man on suspicion of drunk driving after he set off a chain reaction of vehicle collisions Saturday in Inglewood that hurt 10 people, including a 1-year-old child.

As paramedics treated people who suffered injuries in an earlier traffic accident, the unidentified man allegedly struck the rescue ambulance, which then hit a patrol car, which in turn hit the vehicle involved in the prior traffic accident.

No police officers were hurt in the crash, but a firefighter was nearly caught in the chain of collisions.

“We had one firefighter attending to the patient in one of the vehicles,” Anthony Iacono of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said to CBS 2. “She was approximately 15 to 20 feet away from the car that came through that hit the paramedic squad. She could have been seriously injured.”

The suspected drunk driver was taken to Gardena Memorial Medical Center where he was being treated for a possible broken hip. One of the five people inside the suspect’s car, a 1-year-old child, was taken to UCLA/Harbor General Medical Center. The child’s condition was not immediately known.

The accident authorities were originally called to was a single-vehicle traffic accident at Hardy Street and Crenshaw Boulevard where three people were being treated for injuries.