Driver arrested after hitting pedestrian and setting fire during police chase

Photo by Josiah Farrow on Unsplash

At 9:25 am on Thursday, April 8, police pursued a freight truck west on Century Blvd near North Sepulveda Blvd and E Grand Ave in El Segundo near Los Angeles.

The chase was approaching Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

One minute later, the man driving the freight truck hit a pedestrian, then parked and emerged from the truck.

He was wearing a camouflage hoodie and grey sweatpants.

He was then arrested.

Officers called EMS for the elderly man around 60 years old who was hit by the freight truck. He was breathing.

Another minute later, the inexplicable happened: the freight truck was on fire.

The helicopter and sirens could be heard from LAX.

Two hours later, a man threatened a person at gunpoint at the LAX Hilton.

These crimes are reportedly unrelated.

A driverless future

As driverless cars become more mainstream, what does this mean for freight and semi truck drivers?

It’s likely the impact will be widespread and could prevent accidents like these from happening.

Ideally, driverless cars will not participate in police chases until the robots rise up against humanity, which we assume won’t be this year, but you never know.

Crash data

According to 2019 LAPD crash data, there were nearly 54,000 traffic collisions, that year, which is almost 150 crashes a day.

Los Angeles is a big city, but 150 crashes per day seems excessive.

Around six million automobile collisions occur in the US every year.

According to the Federal Motor Safety Carrier Administration (FMCSA), In 2018, 5,096 large trucks and buses were involved in fatal crashes, a 1-percent increase from 2017. Although the number of large trucks and buses in fatal crashes has increased by 48 percent from its low of 3,432 in 2009, the 2018 number is still 3 percent lower than the 21st-century peak of 5,231 in 2005.

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