The State - News from Sept. 28, 1988

Ed Flanders, who played a kind-hearted hospital administrator on television’s “St. Elsewhere,” was in guarded condition after his convertible crashed down a 400-foot hillside in Trinity County, authorities said. Flanders, 53, was driving on California 299 near the community of Salyer when his car ran off the road and down the embankment, ejecting him, the California Highway Patrol said. The actor was taken to Mad River Community Hospital with head and chest injuries, a nursing supervisor said. The CHP said Flanders has a home in the Willow Creek area, not far from the accident scene. Flanders played the compassionate but self-righteous Dr. Donald Westphall on “St. Elsewhere.” Flander’s Westphall left the series in October, 1987, with a flourish by exposing his bottom to a character playing an executive of a health organization that had taken over St. Eligius Hospital.