18 Hurt as Big Rig Runs Red Light, Hits Bus : Accidents: A female passenger suffers a heart attack at the scene and dies. Another woman is hospitalized in critical condition.
An 18-wheel truck and trailer collided with a bus at a busy Huntington Park intersection Wednesday, apparently triggering a woman passenger’s fatal heart attack and injuring 18 other people, including the bus driver.
The crash occurred shortly before 3:30 p.m. at Slauson and Boyle avenues, in an industrial area near Huntington Park High School. Witnesses told Huntington Park police that the truck driver, heading west on Slauson, ran a traffic light that had just turned red and struck the Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus traveling south.
“One witness said the (truck) driver tried to stop when the light turned yellow, but it looked like the load shifted, and he decided to try to gun it across the intersection,” MTA spokesman Greg Davy said from the accident scene. “By then, the bus driver had the green light and was moving across the intersection at about 15 to 20 miles an hour.”
The impact mangled the area where bus driver Jose A. Comacho, was seated. Comacho, 40, suffered an arm injury and chest pains and was taken to White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was in guarded condition Wednesday night, a hospital spokesman said.
Passenger Andrea Matiarena, 57, suffered a fatal heart attack while Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics were checking her for possible head injuries. According to Huntington Park Police Lt. Carl Heintz, the Los Angeles woman, who had a history of heart problems, was talking to paramedics when she suffered an attack and went into full cardiac arrest. Efforts to revive her failed, and she was pronounced dead at White Memorial about an hour and half after the collision.
Another passenger, an unidentified woman, remained in critical condition Wednesday night at County-USC Medical Center, Heintz said.
All the passengers on the bus were hurt, but most of the injuries were not serious. Ambulances took the victims to six area hospitals. One passenger was treated by paramedics at the accident scene and decided not to go a hospital.
The truck driver was identified as Sergio Rodriguez, 43. He was cited for failure to stop for a red light.
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