Off-Duty Officer Dies, 13 on Bus Hurt in Crash

An off-duty Los Angeles police officer was killed and 13 bus riders slightly injured Friday when the officer’s pickup truck ran head-on into an RTD bus on San Fernando Road in Sun Valley, authorities said.

The officer, whose name was not released pending notification of his family, was pronounced dead at the scene. A Police Department spokesman said the officer was assigned to the department’s North Hollywood Division.

The accident occurred about 5 p.m. near the Sheldon Street intersection. Four riders were taken to Serra Memorial Health Center, three to Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills and three to San Fernando Community Hospital in San Fernando. Three passengers were treated at the scene, the police spokesman said.

Spokesmen for the hospitals said all the passengers were released Friday night.

The officer was driving north on San Fernando Road when a white van turned out of Truesdale Street onto San Fernando Road in front of him, the spokesman said. The slow-traveling van drifted into the officer’s lane, forcing him to brake and swerve into the southbound lane, where he collided with the bus, the spokesman said.