A box truck rolled onto its side in a three-vehicle crash on the southbound 5 Freeway in the Griffith Park area Friday morning, trapping one person inside as crews raced to cut them free. The wreck snarled traffic near Colorado Boulevard and forced California Highway Patrol to shut down two lanes for hours during the rescue.
Firefighters responded at 11:16 a.m. to the crash site on the southbound side of the freeway near Colorado Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. The three-vehicle crash involved an overturned box truck. An alert about the incident was posted by the LAFD
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Crews Work to Free Trapped Patient
Firefighters were working to extricate one patient from the wreckage, the fire department said. The patient's condition was not immediately available. CHP said two lanes would remain closed at the scene for at least two hours, and officials warned that southbound traffic would be heavily impacted as the rescue operation, cleanup and investigation continued, the station reported.
The cause of the crash was reported as unknown. Southbound Interstate 5 approaching the Colorado exit was expected to see heavy traffic impacts for the duration of the incident, according to the LAFD alert, which logged the call under California Highway Patrol log 326 and assigned it to Fire Station 56, Battalion 5 and the West Bureau, within Los Angeles City Council District 4.
Multiple Units Dispatched to the Scene
The department's alert listed units dispatched to the scene. The incident was also broadcast on Channel 7 and listed with an alert code of 14, with Lyndsey Lantz named on the LAFD alert.
Friday's crash echoes another serious collision in the same stretch of Griffith Park earlier this year. On January 18, 2026, the fire department reported a five-car collision on the northbound 5 Freeway overnight in which one person, a 25-year-old man, was determined dead at the scene after being ejected from a vehicle, with five other patients reported, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. In that incident, LAFD personnel remained on scene for approximately one hour coordinating extrication operations and patient management.
