A bus driver was pulled from his mangled vehicle after an almost two-hour rescue effort in Lakewood Wednesday.
Four passengers were also injured after the transit vehicle crashed into a pole when a pickup truck apparently turned into its path at the intersection of Woodruff Avenue and Centralia Street at around 6 p.m.
Witness Rob Allen comforted the driver after the crash, which he was alerted to after he felt the ground shaking in his house.
"(The bus driver) said the truck… turned in front of him and he tried to avoid it. Hit the truck and hit the pole. I asked if he was OK, he said 'I can't feel my legs and I'm trapped,'" Allen said.
Lisa Mederios saw the accident take place while at a nearby park.
"(There was) a huge bang… it sounded like an explosion. We saw the bus just keep going against the pole, the pole ran over into it into the windshield."
A Los Angeles County Fire Department elite Urban Search and Rescue team was called in to help with the effort, and was finally able to free the man just before 8 p.m. A watching crowd cheered as he was finally freed.
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The driver and the other injured were taken to the hospital for treatment. Their condition is unknown.
The pickup truck driver declined treatment at the scene, and did not want to comment on the crash.
