Trash Truck Hits, Severely Injures Bicyclist In Garden Grove

GARDEN GROVE, CA — A man on a bicycle was seriously injured when he collided with an oncoming trash truck Thursday afternoon in the area of Magnolia near Imperial Avenue, Garden Grove police said.

The rider of a 10-speed bike, a man in his mid to late 20s or early 30s wearing "street clothes" came out of a residential neighborhood and "failed to stop at a stop sign" before turning into traffic, Whitney said. The trash truck was in the lane closest to the sidewalk when the oncoming bicyclist was struck.

He "rode right into the path of the trash truck," according to Whitney, and was not wearing a helmet.

Several witnesses told police that the trash truck driver could not have avoided the collision, police said. He had no identification on him at the time of the collision. Police were uncertain where the man came from, or whether he was homeless.

He was taken to the hospital as a trauma patient, and was "bleeding from his ears," according to officers at the scene.

The driver of the trash truck was not cited, and alcohol or drugs were not considered factors in the collision.

Renee Schiavone Photo