Man Killed in 3-Vehicle Crash on 134 Freeway

By City News Service

A man was killed early Sunday after a wrong-way driver caused a two-vehicle crash and a third vehicle struck the wreckage while the two drivers were standing on the Ventura (134) Freeway in Eagle Rock, a California Highway Patrol officer said.

The CHP became aware of the wrong-way vehicle eastbound on the westbound Ventura Freeway just before midnight, and the crash was reported at 12:01 a.m. in the carpool lane west of Figueroa Street, according to the CHP's online log.

The wrong-way driver sideswiped another vehicle in the carpool lane, said CHP Officer Alex Rubio in the Traffic Management Center. The man was killed when a third vehicle crashed into the wrecked vehicles from the earlier collision while the victim and another driver were standing on the freeway, looking at the damaged vehicles. Rubio did not know whether the deceased man was the wrong-way driver.

The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the three-vehicle crash, said spokesman Erik Scott.

Firefighters pronounced the victim dead at the scene and four other people were transported to hospitals with minor injuries, Scott said.

According to an Eagle Rock resident who lives near the 134 freeway and who took the accompanying photos, however, the victim’s body was not recovered at the scene of the accident but rather below a bridge at the top of Hillmont Avenue.

“It was not clear at the time if the victim died of injuries sustained in the vehicular accident or rather from the fall from the bridge,” the resident, Mark Snelgrove, told Patch. 

The CHP issued a SigAlert shutting down all lanes of the westbound
Ventura Freeway at 12:18 a.m. and reopened lanes 3 and 4 at 1:04 a.m.

— Eagle Rock resident Mark Snelgrove contributed to this article.