SHERMAN OAKS — An LAPD officer and others rescued a man’s life after he crashed into the center divider on the 405 freeway on Wednesday, December 25.
Just before 2:00 p.m., a car collided with the divider while traveling northbound on the freeway south of the Ventura Boulevard exit. Officer Don Thompson, a bomb squad technician with Los Angeles Police Department, witnessed the incident as he traveled southbound on the 405 and proceeded to exit his vehicle to rescue the driver who was trapped in his car unconscious. According to a press release from the LAPD, the car hit the divider so hard, it burst into flames.
As Officer Thompson attempted to free the driver, two unnamed civilians also stopped and aided Officer Thompson. Erik Scott, spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, noted that Officer Thompson and the Samaritans managed to pull the unconscious driver out of the car and over the center divider into the northbound lanes before it was too late.
Canyon News spoke to LAPD Spokesman Erik Scott who noted that a battalion chief, who is currently also unnamed, was on the southbound side of the freeway heading to a Christmas gathering with his family, as the incident occurred. The battalion chief happened to be the commander of a local dispatch center. He managed to give the floor captain of that dispatch center an accurate location of the crash, thus allowing responding firefighters to arrive on-scene quicker. As the responders arrived, they managed to put out the flames consuming the car and to treat both Officer Thompson and the driver.
The driver of the vehicle, who is said to be in his mid to late 60s, sustained moderate injuries and was taken to a local hospital. The civilians who aided Officer Thompson did not require any treatment, according to Scott. Officer Thompson suffered 1st and 2nd degree burns and smoke inhalation, and he, too, was taken to an “urgent care facility.” He was released later that night.
Captain Cameron Cross of the LAFD said, “If the LAPD officer had not taken the quick action to rescue that man, this would have been a fatality. The Bomb Squad Officer definitely saved his life.”
