A trash truck overturned Monday morning after colliding with a big rig near Slauson and Alburtis avenues in Los Angeles' West Whittier-Los Nietos area, trapping two people inside the wreckage. The crash was reported just before 6:30 a.m., and first responders arriving on scene found the pair pinned inside the toppled truck.
According to KTLA, the two people trapped in the truck were believed to be in fair condition and had been transported from the scene, per reporter Rich Prickett. The outlet's aerial coverage showed the trash truck still lying on its side as crews worked the scene at 7:15 a.m., roughly 45 minutes after the initial crash was called in.
Both eastbound and westbound lanes of Slauson Avenue were shut down as emergency crews responded. By the time KTLA's Sky5 was overhead, westbound lanes had reopened and traffic had begun moving again, though eastbound lanes remained closed.
Heavy Tow Needed to Right the Truck
Uprighting the overturned trash truck required a heavy tow truck, the station's report notes, with Prickett adding that clearing the crash scene would take a while. The cause of the collision between the trash truck and the big rig remained under investigation as of Tuesday morning, per the same account.
The intersection of Slauson and Alburtis avenues has seen serious crashes before. A multi-vehicle wreck there in May 2018 killed two people and injured two others after a wrong-way driver struck a pair of pickup trucks, one of which overturned in the street, according to KTLA's coverage of that earlier incident, which happened at about 4:30 a.m.
Scene Cleanup Still Underway
No further details on the exact timeline for reopening all lanes of Slauson Avenue had been released as of Tuesday morning. KTLA's report credited Nancy Fontan as a contributor to the coverage of Monday's crash.
