LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. — More than two dozen law enforcement recruits were injured Wednesday morning when they were struck by a wrong-way driver in Los Angeles County, officials said.
The recruits were jogging together as part of their training when they were struck in Whittier around 6:30 a.m., authorities said.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva said 25 recruits were injured, including five who were critically wounded. The sheriff described the worst injures as “life-altering.”
“It happened so quickly,” Villanueva said. “As soon as the accident happened, (in) the chaos … that ensued, they said it looked like an airplane wreck. There were so many bodies scattered everywhere in different states of injury that it was pretty traumatic for everyone involved.”
Most of those injured had been recruited to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Two were recruits for the Bell Police Department, one was for the Glendale Police Department and one had been recruited to the Pasadena Police Department.
“They had zero warning,” Capt. Pat MacDonald of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Training Bureau said at a news conference.
“There was a light pole on the east side of the street and the one thing that was relayed to me was, thank God for that light pole, because the vehicle ultimately hit it and stopped, as opposed to possibly hitting more recruits.”
Recruits detained the driver of the SUV, identified by officials as a 22-year-old man. Authorities tested his blood alcohol level and found no evidence that he was inebriated. Villanueva said he was unsure about whether any drug tests were done.
The California Highway Patrol is investigating the crash.
“So far, it looks like it’s an accident — a horrific accident — but we can’t know for sure until the CHP does their investigation and reaches a conclusion based on all the evidence they still have yet to gather,” Villanueva said.
The sheriff said there were no skid marks at the scene of the crash, which might have indicated that the driver tried to stop the SUV. He added that some recruits thought they heard the car accelerate to as much as 40 mph.
Officials continue to investigate.