Photo by Craig Collins
Craig Collins was walking downhill on Earl Street on Saturday afternoon when a dark blue sedan came barreling down the steep Silver Lake street. Collins jumped out of the way and watched as car cut across busy Glendale Boulevard before crashing into a pole in the 2400 block of Earl Street. He described what happened:
I was walking down the hill and jumped out of the way. Car flew across Glendale Blvd., missing an MTA bus by about 5 seconds, then slammed into a power pole, severing it. No other cross traffic, luckily. Jaws of life used to extract passengers. Driver had worst injuries.
Collins said the car lost its brakes but an officer with the Central Traffic Bureau on Sunday had no details on the accident that took place at about 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. Collins said the accident was a reminder that drivers should not take the steep streets of Silver Lake for granted. “We get used to our narrow and steep streets, but they must always be driven on cautiously, said Collins, who recommends using low gear when traveling down those hills.
Atwater Village
Update: Arrests made in connection with narcotics investigation.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Many Atwater Village residents awoke early this morning to the sound of explosions and the sight of heavily-armed FBI agents on the streets as the agency served search warrants at two locations during pre-dawn raids. The raids took place on Revere Street and Seneca Avenue, according to Lt. Steven Flores with the LAPD Northeast Division, which was not involved in the FBI operation. A resident who lives near the house that was raided in the 3800 block of Revere Street at about 5:30 a.m. describes what happened:
Stun grenades woke my house mates and me up, we ran outside to see what was going on and the streets were blocked off by unmarked FBI SUV’s. Three hummers and a couple vans were in front of the house they were raiding. The FBI agents were wearing full riot gear and were carrying M-16′s.
When I drove by the house on my way to work about an hour later most of the FBI was gone, but a few field agents were still there, looked like they were writing reports. The windows had been blown out of the house on the upstairs balcony and the huge gate that blocks their driveway had been removed.
*Update: An FBI spokeswoman said arrests were made in connection with an investigation involving allegations of narcotics sales and distribution. She did not have many details but said the agents delivered state warrants at multiple locations. The explosions residents heard were flash-bang grenades used to stun or distract suspects. FBI agents were still present this afternoon at a large, two-story house on Revere Street and had Seneca Avenue blocked off.
Related Post:
- The cocaine, cars & Cartiers behind the FBI Atwater raid. The Eastsider
Photos by Bich Ngoc Cao
One woman was injured in Silver Lake last night when her car swerved off Sunset Boulevard and smashed into a telephone pole near Lucile Avenue, according to a neighborhood resident. Bich Ngoc Cao, who snapped photos of the accident scene, provided more details about the midnight crash:
A police officer at the scene said that the driver was lucky to be alive when she was taken away by ambulance, though he said he wasn’t sure if she would survive the accident. He described that she was bleeding out of her ears, nose and mouth and was unconscious when found. I’m glad no one else was hurt, and I hope the driver is healing.
The Eastsider is checking with LAPD’s Central Traffic Bureau for additional information.
Photos by Orrin Anderson
City crews spent much of this morning cutting away a towering pine tree on Effie Street in Echo Park that came crashing down last night on a car parked across the street. Orrin Anderson snapped a few photos and provided some details of the tree that stood on Effie west of Echo Park Avenue:
It fell from the South side across to the north side of the street, crushing the back half of a Toyota Tercel parked there. At 10 am this morning, when I first drove by, the city still had Effie Street closed off because the tree was still intact blocking the street. A few hours later, the tree had been cut to clear the way, but the debris is still in place on either side of the street, and some lines from the adjacent telephone poles are still down.
Last year, a diseased, 40-foot high palm tree on the same block was cut down for fear it would fall down. Click here for more toppled pine tree photos.
An employee of Select Patrol, an Atwater Village-based security firm that serves Echo Park and other communities, was killed Saturday night along the side of the 134 Freeway in Burbank after he had finished helping a co-worker fix a flat tire. Don Bishop, 55, of Long Beach, was pronounced dead at the scene after being struck by a car as he was getting into his van, reports ABC7. His co-worker, Daniel Cukar, 27, was injured after being hit in the head with debris from the accident. Select Patrol* owner Darin Williams told The Eastsider that Bishop was on patrol in Pasadena when he responded to Cukar’s request for help.
“He was a good supervisor – a good leader,” said Williams of Bishop.
[Read More…]
Pet owners arriving at the Silver Lake Dog Park this morning were met with the aftermath of a traffic accident that sent a vehicle on Silver Lake Boulevard smashing into the fence near the entrance to the small dog portion of the park. The Watch Commander at the LAPD’s Central Traffic Bureau said he was not aware of any injuries and did not have any details about the incident. Jen Byrne of the Silver Lake Dog Park Association spent this morning clearing away broken branches and bits of broken glass near the dog park entrance.
Elysian Heights
Update: Two suspects taken into custody during the serving of search warrants for narcotics
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Elysian Heights residents report hearing multiple guns shots or blasts near Echo Park Avenue and Baxter Street tonight. The blasts might be in connection with the serving of search warrants, according to early reports that could not be confirmed. Police have sealed off a portion of Baxter Street west of Echo Park Avenue, and officers can be seen walking across Fargo Street, according to one resident.
* Update: The blasts may have been the sounds of “flash-bangs” – non-lethal grenades used to stun suspects – that were used in the serving of a search warrant, said an officer with the Northeast Division. No other details were available.
* Update @ 11:15 p.m.: Two persons were taken into custody during the serving of search warrants for narcotics, according to Lt. John Cook with the Northeast Division. Baxter and Fargo streets west of Echo Park Avenue remained blocked off.
Related Post:
The blackened wreckage has been cleared and traffic once again zoomed past the scene of Friday night’s fiery freeway crash in Highland Park that claimed the life of an 11-month-old girl. But the Highland Park residents who heard and tried to rescue Leiana Ramirez from the backseat of her car are still trying to get over the trauma from the deadly crash on the Arroyo Seco Parkway. It’s one of the many accidents residents have witnessed over the years in the freeway lanes across the street from their homes, according to an L.A. Times story. Residents like Dilia Aviña who live near Bridewell and Hough streets have been through this before, but this accident was different, said the Times:
They’ve all helped with their share of accidents. They’ve run to get water, juice and blankets, jumped over the fence to pull panicked drivers and passengers out of oncoming traffic. They remember the cars — a van, a truck, a motorcycle — and they remember the faces — a nurse, a priest, a young student.
But this time it was a child.
“A little child,” said Aviña, who tried to help on Friday with her garden hose. “And there was nothing we could do about it.”
A small shrine of flickering candles, stuffed animals, flowers and a note addressed to “Sweet Little Girl” had been set up near the crash scene.
A driver of a city sanitation truck was injured this morning after his truck crashed into the front yard of a Lincoln Heights home. Maria Paredes said she and her family were in the back of the house in the 2500 block of Johnston Street singing “Happy Birthday” to her husband when they heard the crash. “We all came out running … there was a lot of smoke,” she said. What they found was a green Bureau of Sanitation truck that had tumbled into their front yard, knocking down a fence and smashing the window awnings on the front of the house. Parades said a relative with a two-year-old were in the front of the house watching TV when the crash took place but no one in the house suffered injuries.
[Read More…]
An SUV crashed into an Echo Park cottage near Lake Shore Avenue and Berkeley Street this afternoon, punching a hole into the building. The vehicle, which is pictured above being towed away from the scene, caused some damage to the base of the home, said David Torres, who was driving by at about 1:40 p.m. It’s not clear if anyone was injured in the accident or how much damaged occurred, but Torres said Gas Co. crews were on the scene. It looked like the vehicle was heading east on Berkeley and kept going through the intersection before hitting the house, Torres said.
Related Post:
- SUV smashes into Echo Park apartments. Patch
Photos by Daisy Sylbert-Torres/Feeding Birds Boutique
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