Wrong-way car injures 25 LA County sheriff’s recruits, 5 critically, on training run
LOS ANGELES — Five Los Angeles County sheriff’s recruits were critically injured Wednesday morning when a man driving a Honda CR-V plowed into a large group during a training run in South Whittier, authorities said.
The crash occurred near the sheriff’s STARS Center training academy, near Mills Avenue and Trumball Street in unincorporated Los Angeles County, Deputy David Yoo said. Dispatchers received a call at 6:26 a.m. Pacific time about a crash involving pedestrians, Deputy Brenda Serna said.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva said during a news conference in Orange County, where many of the injured were transported, that 25 recruits were hurt. They were members of Academy Class 464. He said injuries included head trauma and broken bones, and “we have had some loss of limb,” noting that one of the five critical patients “is currently on a ventilator.”
At least one of the recruits suffered cranial bleeding and was listed in critical condition, according to a source familiar with the mass casualty incident.
“It looked like an airplane wreck,” Villanueva said. “There was so many bodies scattered everywhere in different states of injury that it was pretty traumatic for all individuals involved.”
The injuries are all “survivable,” the sheriff said, and he expects the recruits to recover, but he and others in the department
