Passenger dies, driver hospitalized after crash on 5 Freeway in Anaheim

A person died, and another was hospitalized after a car slammed into a pole on the 5 Freeway in Anaheim on Tuesday evening, July 28.

The crash happened at about 7:40 p.m.  between Brookhurst and Euclid Streets, Anaheim Fire & Rescue Battalion Chief Tim Sandifer said. First responders encountered two people in a black Chevrolet sedan that struck a pole supporting a freeway sign.

The 26-year-old driver of the car was rushed to a trauma center. The 19-year-old passenger of the Chevy was “extremely entangled within the wreckage,” Sandifer said.

A firefighter was seen lying on the hood of the smashed vehicle while attempting to treat the passenger inside. Crews used pneumatic rescue tools and worked for about 25 minutes to free the passenger.

“It was a complicated extrication,” Sandifer said as orange sirens flashed and police investigated the scene behind him on the freeway. “Once that patient was removed from the wreckage, it was determined that it was a fatal traffic accident. It appears to be a young adult male who was killed in the incident.”

Orange County Coroner’s officials were summoned at 8:17 p.m., according to California Highway Patrol logs. The identity of the person who died was not made public Tuesday evening. Updates regarding the condition of the hospitalized driver were not immediately available.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear. Authorities shut down the right two lanes near the site of the collision while authorities conducted an investigation, Sandifer said.

OnScene.TV videographer Brentt Sporn contributed to this report.