Surveillance footage captured the moment a large tree toppled over a public bus and two other vehicles on a busy stretch of road in Sawtelle on Friday.
Katie McFarland was in her car near Sawtelle Boulevard and La Grange Avenue when she suddenly heard what she described as the loudest noise in her life.
“It was so, so scary. It was the biggest crash I’d ever heard,” McFarland said.
Sometime before 11 p.m., a roughly 30-foot Ficus came crashing down in the area amid heavy downpours. McFarland said her boyfriend was getting them dinner when the tree fell.
“I just see everything go dark,” she said. “I can’t move forward, I can’t move back and I see a little bit of light next to my driver’s side and he’s there trying to yank it open to let me out.”
Luckily, McFarland was unharmed during the incident. In addition to falling atop McFarland’s car, the tree also landed on a Big Blue Bus and another car. At the time of the crash, the bus driver was the sole occupant of the public transportation vehicle and he, too, was unharmed. It’s unclear if there was anyone in the third vehicle.
Crews began working to clear the debris from the area soon after the incident. McFarland and her boyfriend stayed behind to see if her car was OK.
“It looks way better than I thought it would,” she said.
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