Woman Pushes Baby to Safety, Gets Hit by Truck
A 26-year-old Ventura woman pushed her 2-year-old daughter to safety moments before a pickup driven by a suspected drunk driver smashed her into a cement block wall on Telegraph Road on Tuesday afternoon, police said.
Ventura County Medical Center surgeons continued to work on Susan Erickson’s massive injuries late Tuesday night, a hospital spokeswoman said. Her daughter, Destiny, was in fair condition with cuts and abrasions.
The driver of the truck, Carrol James Smith, 77, of Ventura was booked into the Ventura County Jail on suspicion of driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and causing injury, said Ventura Police Sgt. Gary Adkinson.
Erickson was walking her daughter in a stroller along Telegraph Road, between Harding and Hoover avenues, when she noticed Smith’s truck had jumped the curb and was heading directly toward her, witnesses told police.
The woman pushed the baby away from her just before she was struck and pinned between the vehicle and a cement block wall, Adkinson said.
It took firefighters 20 minutes to stabilize the woman and extricate her from between the truck and the wall after the 3 p.m. accident, Adkinson said.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
