A man was hospitalized Thursday in critical condition with injuries suffered when the Mercedes-Benz he was driving flew off a downtown Los Angeles overpass.
*Caught on Camera* -Dramatic Fiery Rescue by CHP Officers after a Car flies off a Freeway Overpass
Mercedes-Benz vehicles aren’t made to fly – at least not yet, but this one in downtown Los Angeles flew off an overpass on the 110 Freeway. Worse, the car crashed on nearby trees and immediately burst into flames with the driver trapped inside.
The whole incident was captured by a dashcam mounted in a car driven by Fernindo Salazar. As you can see in the video embedded atop this page, Salazar pulled over and tried to help the driver get out of the burning vehicle.
“It started catching on fire right way,” Salazar said in an interview with NBC Los Angeles. “I was trying to pull him out. The guy was really tied down. He had his seat belt on. He was trapped inside, so it was hard to get him out.”
According to the California Highway Patrol, the crash was reported at around 10:00 p.m. on Thursday. It happened near the Sixth Street exit. Apart from Salazar, firefighters and officers arrived on the scene and successfully pulled out the man from the wrecked Merc.
Margaret Stewart of the Los Angeles Fire Department said that the man was taken to a local hospital in critical condition, with burns and injuries, though the nature of the injuries wasn’t disclosed.
Details about the immediate cause of the accident weren’t available in NBC Los Angeles’ report. It can be assumed, though, that the driver lost control of the vehicle, as seen on the dashcam video. This may have caused him to hit the side of the overpass before catching air and landing on the palm trees.
