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Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Driver Crashes Into Trench, Injures 2 Workers

Driver, described as being in his 80s, apparently blacked out before crash.

A driver reportedly blacked out and crashed his minivan into a trench in Chatsworth on Friday morning, injuring two workers. The driver was described by fire officials as being in his 80s.

The accident happened at 8:44 a.m. in the 10200 block of Hanna Avenue about 300 feet south of Devonshire Street.

“The elderly person [knocked] over cones that were set up,” said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Cecil Manresa. “One worker was operating a jackhammer and one was operating a backhoe. The driver went into the trench.”

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One worker, the foreman, suffered a fractured rib, and the other, a pipe layer, suffered bruises to his legs and pelvis, said Erika Monterroza, a spokeswoman for Cal/OSHA, which was investigating the work-site accident, along with the state Department of Industrial Relations. The men were taken to Northridge Hospital, she said.

Monterroza said the driver passed out before the accident, and he was not transported by ambulance.

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Two engine companies and two rescue ambulances, as well as police, responded to the scene.

The foreman, from Huntington Beach, and the pipe layer, from South Gate, were working to raise a manhole to grade when the passing minivan swerved into them, Monterroza said.

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