Firefighters used the Jaws of Life to rescue the driver of a work truck who became trapped after crashing into a commercial building on Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades on Thursday at approximately 11:30 a.m.
The single-vehicle crash was reported about 11:30 a.m. at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Chautauqua Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Crews worked to free the driver, the truck’s only occupant, before he was removed from the cab, placed in an ambulance and transported to a hospital, with his condition unclear.
The flatbed truck was hauling scaffolding as it was coming down Chautauqua Boulevard.
The driver’s legs were pinned inside the crushed cab.
He was freed from the vehicle at approximately 1:26 p.m., and reports indicate that he was alert and talking.
Once the man was freed around 1:20 p.m., he gave a thumbs-up as he was taken by ambulance on a gurney, according to a broadcast report from the scene.
An estimated 35 LAFD firefighters responded to the call at 14830 W. Pacific Coast Highway near Chautauqua Boulevard.
The rescue operation lasted nearly two hours.
“It’s not your typical traffic accident,” said Captain Anthony Tubbs, LAFD public information officer, at a briefing on the scene. “You have the building issue and the concern of stability, and then you have the vehicle, which is in itself impaled and damaged.”
Two people working at The Friendship Bar at 112 West Channel Road heard the collision and rushed to offer assistance—Daniel Baker and Chantal Eastman were among the first people on the scene of the accident.
“We heard a large crash and a bunch of pipes falling off while we were inside doing a training,” said Daniel Baker in an interview with the Palisadian-Post. “So we came around the corner from West Channel up to Chautauqua, and we saw the truck lodged over the edge into the building with all the scaffolding on the ground.”
“We ran up to the guy … another guy was there, he propped open the door, he pulled it open, and then we saw inside the guy’s face was all bloodied,” continued Baker. “The roof from the building he ran into was pinning him to the truck, so he was stuck.”
“About 20 people got out of their cars and all started helping to pull all the stuff away from his truck that had fallen out to basically give a path to the doorway for the firefighters,” said Baker.
Eastman, who said she is certified in Community Emergency Response Training, checked on the condition of the driver while awaiting the arrival of rescue personnel.
Approximately 35 to 40 firefighters and 13 fire companies—including Urban Search and Rescue units—responded to the scene due to the complex nature of the crash.
Firefighters on scene reported that the crash may have been caused by brake failure.
The cause of the crash was under investigation.
In the viral moment that unfolded Thursday morning, a flatbed work truck veered off Chautauqua Boulevard heading toward Pacific Coast Highway.
A scaffolding truck had crashed into a structure, trapping the vehicle’s sole occupant inside, after the truck was reportedly heading down Chautauqua Boulevard when it veered off of the roadway into the back of a mixed-use building located at 107 West Channel Road.
The truck belongs to IVO Wall Experts, a drywall contractor based in City of Commerce.
No one was inside the building when it was struck, according to LAFD spokeswoman Jennifer Middleton.
Despite the complicated, nearly two-hour extraction process, officials reported that the driver remained in stable condition throughout the incident and was successfully extracted and transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.
The truck was removed from the building with a crane.