Suicide by big rig

MCBuggyCo

Seasoned Expediter
By H.G. Reza, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
2:12 PM PDT, August 5, 2008
A Santa Ana man with an "angry look" committed suicide today by stepping in front of a tractor-trailer in the northbound lanes of the 57 Freeway in Placentia, police said.

Corrine Loomis, a spokeswoman for the Placentia Police Department, said the 31-year-old man stood in the far right lane with arms raised as the big rig barreled north. Witnesses told police that he had an angry look on his face when he was struck at 8:57 a.m.

The man had parked a 1999 Buick Century on the shoulder with the hood raised and had been standing by the car before walking into traffic. Investigators determined that the man's death was a suicide, Loomis said.

Since 2006 police had been called twice to check on the man's welfare, police said, but they offered no further details.

A police investigation shut down all freeway lanes except one, resulting in a SigAlert for about three hours.
 

MCBuggyCo

Seasoned Expediter
Q What are Sig-Alerts?

A.

"Sig-Alerts" are unique to Southern California. They came about in the 1940s when the L.A.P.D. got in the habit of alerting a local radio reporter, Loyd Sigmon, of bad car wrecks on city streets. These notifications became known as "Sig-Alerts." Later Mr. Sigmon developed an electronic device that authorities could use to alert the media of disasters. Caltrans latched on to the term "Sig-Alert" and it has come to be known as any traffic incident that will tie up two or more lanes of a freeway for two or more hours.
 
Top