Photos courtesy of a Long Beach Post reader.
Authorities are trying to figure out how a homeless man ended up pinned underneath an SUV near Bixby Park Thursday, requiring firefighters to use a rescue airbag to lift the vehicle and extricate him.
Officers were dispatched to 2nd Street and Cherry Avenue at about 11:40AM regarding an injury traffic accident, according to Sgt. Brad Johnson of the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD).
The homeless man claimed that at one point during the night someone parked their car over him, subsequently pinning him, said Brian Fisk of the Long Beach Fire Department (LBFD). He was apparently sleeping in a parking space, adjacent to a gutter.
Firefighters called for a truck unit and used high-pressure airbags to lift the car and extricate the homeless man, Fisk said. The victim was conscious and breathing when they pulled him out and was transported to an area trauma hospital with relatively minor injuries, Fisk added.
According to Johnson, a witness who parked in front of the involved vehicle two hours before the call came in said there was no one under the car at the time.
“How this transient actually got under the car is still unclear,” said Johnson.
The officer responding to the incident did observe the homeless man was intoxicated at the time of the incident, Johnson said. The owner of the vehicle could not be located at the time of the investigation, he added.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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