A man was thrust into a life-threatening situation after he was ejected from a moving RV on the 14 Freeway in Newhall, while it smashed against the center divider before his body was strewn across the northbound side. The bizarre and shocking reel of events unfolded just south of Newhall Avenue around 11:30 a.m. Monday, according to a video shared with KTLA by an eyewitness with the handle @1967dodgedart.
The driver, who found himself rolling on the pavement after the forceful collision, was hospitalized with major injuries. Following the crash, lanes on both sides of the freeway remained closed for several hours, leaving commuters stranded as investigators pieced together the reasons behind the ordeal. Inferring from the video's disturbing contents, the Los Angeles County Fire Department confirmed the man had indeed hit the center divider, leading to his unfortunate ejection, as per reports by KTLA.
According to NBC Los Angeles, Alf Smithey, who witnessed the incident while driving southbound, recounted the harrowing scene. Smithey detailed, "You just see dust, smoke. [The driver] slides along the center divider for 600 feet or so." The Good Samaritan stopped his car and approached the wreckage and discovered the man's absence, further shared by a frantic woman from within the RV who was desperately searching for her husband.
As the woman, appearing to be the driver, kept iterating, "My husband is not here. My husband is not here," Smithey tried peering out the window only to realize that the man might have been hurled out during the crash. Smithey, propelled by a sense of urgency, bolted along the freeway divider, searching for the ejected man. Shockingly, the female driver confessed to falling asleep at the wheel, a critical piece of information that sheds light on the potential cause of the accident, "She kept saying, ‘My husband is not here. My husband is not here.’ Then she kept looking out the window behind her," Smithey told NBC Los Angeles. Updates on the condition of the man are still forthcoming as KTLA attempts to gather more information.
