Three injured in car accident

Fred Ortega

A traffic accident early Sunday morning on the Golden State (5)

Freeway left two young women seriously hurt, a Glendale Fire

Department official said.

Ten emergency vehicles from Glendale, Burbank and Los Angeles City

fire departments responded to a call at 2:43 a.m. Sunday morning of a

car over the side on the northbound side of the freeway, north of the

Western Avenue offramp, Glendale Capt. Carlos Guerrero said.

Firefighters found a black 1994 Honda Accord that had smashed into

a large eucalyptus tree, leaving the 21-year-old female driver and a

20-year-old female passenger, both from Burbank, trapped inside,

California Highway Patrol Officer Vince Bell said.

A third passenger, a 20-year-old North Hollywood woman who was

also hurt, was found sitting alongside the car.

Firefighters had to use the jaws of life and other rescue

equipment to free the women from the mangled car.

“Between the responding agencies we were able to extricate the

victims within what we call the ‘golden hour,’ the time you want to

get the patients to the emergency room,” Guerrero said. “From that

sense the extrication was a success.”

The two women who were pulled from the vehicle suffered serious

injuries and were transported to County-USC Medical Center, Bell

said.

“The third woman suffered only light injuries,” Bell said, adding

that an investigation into the cause of the accident was ongoing.

The incident caused a temporary shutdown of the freeway onramp,

California Highway Patrol Officer John Seumanupafa said.

“We shut down the Western Avenue onramp to the northbound 5 during

the rescue operation, and the scene was cleared by 4:20 a.m.,”

Seumanupafa said.

Officials would not identify the three victims. More than 30 fire

department personnel participated in the operation, Guerrero said.