LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Los Angeles police have released video of a violent crash involving a police cruiser rushing to an incident which left a civilian in a medically-induced coma.
The video shows officers driving with sirens and lights on to a call for an officer needing assistance on June 23 in the Jefferson Park neighborhood to the west of downtown.
Most cars on Adams Boulevard are seen pulling over, but as the police SUV tries to pass a Toyota Corolla on its left, it turns in front of them and is broadsided on the driver’s side.
The Corolla goes spinning on Adams and smashes into two other parked cars. The car’s driver side is heavily damaged and the driver is seen bloody, unconscious and trapped.
The two officers emerge from the SUV after air bags deploy. The officer on the passenger side appears to be relatively uninjured as he cuts off his seat belt, though his partner who was driving says “I’m seeing stars.”
They try to help the injured driver. In the video, he is seen unconscious with blood on his head and his shirt. They smash open the glass on the passenger side and try to help him, but he appears to be wedged in the driver’s seat.
Eventually, the department says, Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics removed the driver from the Corolla and brought him to a local hospital. Doctors there placed him into a medically induced coma. The department says the man is expected to survive.
LAPD investigators are interviewing witnesses and collecting video to analyze the collision. Their findings could take several months.
The LAPD video can be viewed in full here on YouTube. Warning: The footage includes graphic, bloody images of the injured driver after the collision.
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