A 43-year-old motorcyclist’s fatal heart attack might have been triggered when he rear-ended a chp.ca.govofficer’s SUV parked Saturday at a road closure on the Long Beach (710) Freeway in Vernon.
Leon Lyles was riding his Harley Davidson northbound on the Long Beach (710) Freeway at about 6:35 a.m. when he entered the closure of the number one and two lanes of the northbound freeway, south of Atlantic Boulevard, and struck the patrol SUV, which had its overhead emergency lights activated, the California Highway Patrol reported.
The closure, from Slauson Avenue to Bandini Boulevard, had been set up about 8 p.m. Friday by Caltrans for center barrier repair.
The officer in 2013 Ford Explorer got of the vehicle, rendered aid and realized that Lyles’ bike had caught fire. The biker was unresponsive and his right leg was pinned underneath the motorcycle.
The CHP officer was able to pull him away from the wreckage and he, along with two other people, began medical aid.
Paramedics rushed the Pasadena resident, under cardiac arrest, to Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival.
The CHP’s East Los Angeles office asked anyone with information regarding the crash to call them at (323) 980-4600.
—City News Service