Several injured as trolley crashes at The Grove shopping center
The vehicle was nearing the end of its quarter-mile track when it struck a set of planter pots. Two people were taken to the hospital.
Several people were injured Friday night when a doubledecker trolley carrying approximately 70 people at The Grove shopping center failed to stop.
Chief Corey Rose of the Los Angeles Fire Department said that the trolley was nearing the western terminus of its quarter-mile track, near the Farmers Market, when it crashed into a set of large planter pots shortly after 9 p.m. Witnesses said that the trolley's impact was minor and it did not derail.
Rose said the cause of the crash was not known but that the trolley was traveling at a slow speed when the crash occurred. Two people, a 27-year-old man and a 50-year-old woman, were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, and five others were treated at the scene. One of the injured was carried from the scene in a neck and back brace.
Juan Ramirez, 35, and his wife, Marie, 33, were sitting with their toddler son, Samuel, on the top level of the doubledecker when the crash occurred. Ramirez said he saw two small children start to cry after hitting their faces on the railing, but for the most part, he said, the passengers were calm. "The trolley just kept going, but the impact was not tough," he said. "It was not going very fast."
The Grove's doubledecker trolley, modeled on a 1950s-era Boston streetcar, has oak running boards, brass handrails and fittings and two spiral staircases to the upper deck. It travels the quarter mile between The Grove and the Farmers Market in about six minutes.
Officials said the trolley would be closed while the accident was investigated.
Staff writer Cara Mia DiMassa contributed to this report.
