Teen driving big rig jumps freeway, crashes into mobile home park

From wire service reports
Posted: 12/07/2010 06:40:21 AM PSTUpdated: 12/07/2010 08:15:44 AM PST

A teen was injured this morning when a big rig being driven by a 16-year-old crashed on the eastbound Foothill (210) Freeway in Lake View Terrace and went off the freeway into a mobile home park.

The injured 13-year-old boy was in the big rig and was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, firefighters told reporters at the scene.

The truck was being driven by a 16-year-old because the original driver, a man in his 20s, handed over the controls of the vehicle, authorities said. The 16-year-old and a 3-year-old left the scene of the wreckage.

The crash at 3:39 a.m. in the 12000 block of Foothill Boulevard prompted closure of two right lanes of the eastbound freeway just west of Foothill, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Firefighters initially thought there were two children were trapped or missing in the wrecked cab of the big rig and an urban search-and-rescue team was summoned, Los Angeles Fire Department Battalion Chief Dennis Waters said in a broadcast report.

Search technicians spent about one hour taking the cab apart, found no one inside, and then learned the unaccounted-for children -- ages 3 and 16 -- somehow got away from the crash scene.

Firefighters summoned a heavy equipment hauler to move the wreckage. The big rig came to rest some 50 feet from the freeway guard rail on a slope and upside down, according to the CHP.

The vehicle reportedly was hauling an estimated 36,000 pounds of whipped cream and sour cream.

http://www.presstelegram.com/breakingnews/ci_16797764