25 Los Angeles County sheriff’s recruits were injured Wednesday morning when a vehicle, driving the wrong way, struck and hit a group during a training run. The recruits were a part of the STARS Center Academy in Whittier, California and were in their eighth week of a 22 week training program.
According to L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, 16 of the recruits face minor injuries, four recruits are in moderate to stable condition, and five are in critical condition.
Describing the scene of the accident, Villanueva said,
Villanueva: They said it looked like an airplane wreck, there were so many bodies scattered everywhere in different states of injury that it was pretty traumatic for all individuals involved.
Whittier resident Mike Pabich says that his neighbor witnessed the accident. Relaying the story to Annenberg Media, his description aligns with that of Villanueva’s.
Pabich: She told me one guy, she said there was blood, but she couldn’t tell what was happening. But she said the bottom of his leg. And I thought, I go, ‘his foot was amputated.’ Somehow this car tire or somehow just...hit this guy and ripped into him and messed up his foot.
The accident has sent shock waves throughout the community of Whittier. Residents, like Ali Hernandez, were shaken up by the incident. She said if the accident occurred an hour later, students at nearby Howard J. McKibben Elementary School, where she works, could have crossed paths with the driver. The school canceled classes for the day following the accident.
Hernandez: It was a very heartbreaking, very sad, devastating, especially for the sheriffs who are training to become sheriffs. It was just it’s heartbreaking because I have family members who are sheriffs. So knowing what they went through, it’s it’s terrible.
The sheriff’s department adds that the 22-year-old driver of the vehicle was detained, but the cause of the accident is still unknown. However, investigators say his initial behavior suggests that he could have been under the influence.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Grace Galante.