Photo Mike Meadows The car is lifted from the scene.

On Sunday, January 27, at 7:56 AM, 6 Companies of Los Angeles Firefighters, 3 LAFD Rescue Ambulances, 1 Heavy Rescue, 1 EMS Battalion Captain, 1 Battalion Chief Officer Command Team, and 3 Swift Water Teams all under the direction of Battalion Chief Richard Elder responded to a Traffic Collision at Avenue 43 and the Pasadena Freeway in Lincoln Heights/Solano Canyon.

A car traveling northbound on the Pasadena Freeway jettisoned off the freeway, landing in a flood control channel which runs parallel to the freeway. The car came to rest on it's wheels, some 30 feet below the freeway.

Fortunately, even though the area was inundated with heavy rains at the time, the water traveling down the flood control channel was less than 6 inches deep. Both occupants of the car were able to self extricate themselves and were found standing in the water.

Both patients, a 29 year-old female and a 35 year-old female were able to move to the outer edge of the wash where Firefighters were able to assess and stabilize them prior to hoisting them to the roadway above.

The patients were removed from the channel using a litter basket/hoist operation and transported to Los Angeles County Medical Center for evaluation.

One patient sustained minor injuries and the other patient sustained serious, non-life threatening injuries. The cause of the incident is under investigation by the CHP.