LOCAL : Parked CHP Car Rammed; 5 Injured

One man was seriously injured and faces surgery today after a collision involving a California Highway Patrol car last night on the San Diego Freeway that injured five, authorities said.

Brian Copper, 20, of Bellflower was admitted to Fountain Valley Regional Hospital with compound fractures of his right leg and ankle and was also believed to have suffered major internal injuries, said CHP spokesman Lyle Whitten.

Highway Patrol Officer Bonnie Blatt, 37, was treated for bruised knees after she was knocked into a ditch by a car that swerved onto the shoulder. Blatt was on foot and writing a citation for another car when she was struck, Whitten said.

The driver Blatt had stopped, Ronald Lawrence, 63, of Malibu, and the driver of the swerving car, Manuel Steven Heckerman, 23, of Bellflower, received minor head injuries but refused treatment.

Copper, a passenger in Heckerman’s car, was pinned in the rear seat and was removed by firefighters, Whitten said. Another passenger in the car, Richard Way, 23, received cuts to his head.

Blatt had stopped the Lawrence car on the right shoulder and was writing citations for unsafe turning and excessive speed. Heckerman swerved into the CHP car, knocking it into a ditch, then hit Lawrence’s car.

Heckerman told the CHP he had been pursuing a van that had been cutting him off for about three miles when suddenly the van put on its brakes.