Matthew Jacomb, who was airlifted to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital with injuries suffered after his car ran into a big rig in Canyon Country early Monday morning, is lucky to be alive thanks to the efforts of fast-acting firefighters, his sister told The Signal.
Jacomb, 31, was flown to the hospital shortly after midnight after firefighters worked for at least 15 minutes to free him from the wreckage of his car.
“I am so very glad he’s alive,” said a woman describing herself as Jacomb’s sister, Melissa, noting she planned to contact the firefighters who rescued her brother, to thank them for their efforts.
Jacomb, she said, suffered several scratches and bruises but also had a “big piece of glass in his head” that required 17 staples to close.
Hospital spokesman Patrick Moody said Jacomb had been discharged by mid-afternoon Monday.
Jacomb, a Hart High School grad, was on his way home in Acton when the crash happened, Melissa said.
The two-vehicle traffic collision occurred shortly after 11:20 p.m. Sunday on the 15700 block of Sierra Highway, Inspector Keith Mora of the Los Angeles County Fire Department told The Signal Monday morning.
“This was a two-vehicle collision, one vehicle versus a semi,” he said. “It took firefighters 15 minutes to extricate one person trapped.”
Responding firefighters found a person trapped inside a crumpled Honda Civic which apparently drove into the back of the big rig, near the Gentle Barn on Sierra Highway.
Once freed, the injured person was airlifted from the scene by Fire Department rescue helicopter #15, he said.
“It took firefighters 15 minutes to extricate one person trapped,” Mora said, noting the chopper left the scene 10 minutes after midnight.
Sierra Highway was closed about three hours, until early this morning, for the CHP investigation and to clear the wreckage, according to the California Highway Patrol.
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