Los Angeles ambulance vehicle hits and kills person

A person believed to be homeless was struck and killed by a Los Angeles Sanitation Bureau vehicle Wednesday morning in Sherman Oaks, police say.

Los Angeles police responded around 11:45 a.m. to a report of a pedestrian who had been struck by a vehicle in the 15000 block of Burbank Boulevard, a residential neighborhood near the Sepulveda Basin recreation area, officials said. of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene and the driver of the vehicle remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators.

“This is a tragic incident and our thoughts are with the individual’s loved ones, as well as our driver, who is currently in crisis counselling,” wrote the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, which oversees the sanitation office. a statement sent by email. “This is an open investigation, and we will provide more information when we can.”

The ministry did not immediately respond to questions about the nature of the vehicle and whether it was in service at the time of the incident.

However, Mayor Karen Bass and Council Member Nithya Raman both identified the vehicle as a city sanitation truck and suggested in written statements that the victim was homeless.

“Homeless Angelenos are dying on our streets every day,” Bass said. “Our work to bring homeless Angelenos indoors is a matter of life and death – which is why our office is treating this crisis as the emergency that it is.”

Raman, who represents Sherman Oaks on the city council, said in a statement that Wednesday’s death “follows the deaths of three homeless people in the area in recent days, due to a range of causes on which we are still awaiting full details.

“These are lives that mattered and we express our sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of these individuals,” Raman said.

The death also comes less than two months after an ambulance truck struck and killed a pedestrian in San Pedro, KABC-TV Channel 7 reported.

The incident is still under investigation by the LAPD.