The three-car crash occurred about 7:30 p.m. in the 800 block of South Indiana Street in Boyle Heights. The impact thrust the sheriff's vehicle onto the sidewalk, where it ran into a mother and her two children, ages 7 and 9, said Los Angeles police Officer Drake Madison, an LAPD spokesman, according to the LA Times.
According to the report in the Times:
A security video obtained by The Times from Green Mill Liquor Store shows the moments after a sheriff's SUV drove onto the sidewalk and hit the pedestrians.The crash severely injured seven other people as well. According to Madison, in addition to two deputies and three pedestrians, someone from one of the other two cars was transported to a hospital.
The clip shows the sheriff's SUV after it had already struck at least two people. The vehicle appears in the frame from the side of a building. The video shows the split second after the front of the SUV - with its emergency lights on - hit a trash can. A person rolls into the frame on the sidewalk. Because the video has no audio, it's unclear if the cruiser's sirens were on.
Just moments before, the video shows a man walking through a parking lot next to the building abruptly turning and running toward the street just as the SUV appears, apparently reacting to the sound of the crash.
The clip is about eight seconds long.
Images from the scene show the crumpled right front side of the SUV and the tire folded under its mangled frame.
One child died at the scene, and one died at a hospital, he said. The mother is in critical condition, Madison said.
Although police have yet to claim who is at fault in the crash, we can assume that the officer was travelling at a high rate of speed through the area on his way to the call.
Video in tweeted article below.
Police car crashes are an unfortunately common reality. In fact, just one day prior, in a separate incident in Perris, a girl was killed Wednesday night after a collision with a Riverside sheriff's car near Perris Boulevard and Nuevo Road.
The deputy hit the pedestrian while responding to an unrelated call, said Riverside Sheriff's Deputy Mike Vasquez. He would not release the girl's name or age, saying only that she was a juvenile and that the deputy inside the patrol unit was unharmed, reports the Times.
As TFTP reported last month, Joan Raye, 78, is lucky to be alive after a Franklin County Sheriff's made the dangerous decision to speed over 80 mph through a neighborhood and plowed into her vehicle. In spite of the fact that the deputy hit her, however, this poor elderly woman is now being charged with a crime for his negligence.
As TFTP previously reported, a shocking report showed just how dangerous being an innocent bystander can be when there is a police chase going on.
On average, according to the report, one person every day is killed during a high-speed chase.
To put this into perspective, that's larger than the number of people killed by floods, tornadoes, lightning and hurricanes - combined.
Contrary to popular thinking, high-speed chases aren't only dangerous for those involved. Innocent bystanders are all too often the victims of these reckless pursuits.
According to the report, more than 5,000 bystanders and passengers have been killed in police car chases since 1979. Tens of thousands more were injured as officers repeatedly pursued drivers at high speeds and in hazardous conditions.
Aside from the 5,000 completely innocent lives lost, an additional 6,300 fleeing 'suspects' were also killed, bringing the total to 11,506 dead since 1979. Even this shockingly large number is likely an understatement, according to the report. The Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) uses police reports to determine if a crash is chase related, and many of the reports do not disclose that a chase had occurred at all.
At least they've suspended him without pay. SHOCK! [Link]
No indications of an arrest yet, and the OPD is still not releasing the guy's name.
Yah think they'd do that for you ? Hah! R.C.
*Which is why I made it up. Just joking.
RC