A devastating multi-vehicle collision rocked South Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon, leaving a trail of wreckage, heartbreak, and serious questions about what was happening on that stretch of road just before everything went terribly wrong.
The crash happened just after 2:00 p.m. near the intersection of Vermont Avenue and 96th Street, an unincorporated pocket of Los Angeles County where the California Highway Patrol holds jurisdiction rather than LAPD. By the time fire crews and investigators arrived, the scene looked more like something out of a demolition derby than a public street. At least six vehicles were involved in the collision, and the damage was severe enough to make some of those cars almost unrecognizable.
One person was pronounced dead at the scene. Two others were transported to the hospital in critical condition, making this one of the more alarming traffic incidents Los Angeles County has seen in recent memory. The Los Angeles County Fire Department responded and managed the chaos before handing things over to CHP, who are now leading the investigation into exactly what caused this to happen…