If you were hurt in a crash in Pacoima, the report was written by one of two agencies, and which one depends on where you were. On Van Nuys Boulevard, Laurel Canyon, Glenoaks, Paxton Street or any other surface street, the LAPD’s Foothill Community Police Station on Osborne Street handles the call. On the 5, the 118 or the 210, it is the California Highway Patrol. The nearest emergency rooms are Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, which is a Level II trauma center, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar and Pacifica Hospital of the Valley in Sun Valley. Get seen the same day, file the DMV SR-1 within 10 days if anyone was hurt, and do not give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance company before talking to a lawyer.
Pacoima’s traffic is heavier and slower to stop than most of the Valley’s. Industrial yards and truck routes along Paxton Street and San Fernando Road sit next to dense residential blocks, Whiteman Airport occupies the middle of the neighborhood, and three freeways border or cross it. The crashes that follow are predictable: a truck turning across Van Nuys Boulevard, a driver pulling out of a yard entrance on Paxton, a pedestrian struck walking to a bus stop on Glenoaks. This guide covers the station, the CHP office, the hospitals and the first steps of the claim.
At the scene on Van Nuys Boulevard, Glenoaks or Paxton
Get the car out of the lane if it still moves and nobody is badly hurt. Call 911 even when the damage looks small, because the officer’s report is the first thing every insurance company reads.
Then, while you wait:
- Photograph every vehicle from all four corners, the resting positions, skid marks, debris and the signal or stop sign.
- Photograph the other driver’s license, insurance card and plate. If a commercial vehicle was involved, photograph the company name, the DOT number and the trailer plate as well.
- Ask anyone who stopped for a name and cell number, including people working at nearby businesses who saw it.
- Look for cameras on markets, auto shops and yard gates. Most systems record over themselves within weeks.
- Answer the officer’s factual questions, exchange information, and say nothing about fault or about feeling fine.
Ask for the report number and the officer’s name and serial number before you leave.
The police station: LAPD Foothill
Pacoima is part of the City of Los Angeles, and its surface streets are covered by the Foothill Community Police Station at 12760 Osborne Street, Pacoima, CA 91331, phone (818) 756-8861. The same station covers Sun Valley, Lake View Terrace, Sunland, Tujunga, Shadow Hills and La Tuna Canyon. Collision investigations for the Valley run through the LAPD’s Valley Traffic Division at 7870 Nollan Place in Panorama City, which serves the Foothill station along with the other Valley stations.
A copy of the report comes from the LAPD’s Records and Identification Division rather than the station. The department releases traffic collision reports online through the LexisNexis portal it uses, in English or Spanish, but asks you to allow a minimum of 45 days from the date of the collision before requesting online. Requests can also be mailed to the Records and Identification Division, Document Processing Unit, P.O. Box 30158, Los Angeles, CA 90030, with the report number, the parties’ names, the date, time and location, the plate numbers and a signed declaration, plus a $19 check or money order. Reports involving arrests, fatalities or juveniles must be requested by mail.
Read the whole report when it arrives. The line where the officer names the Vehicle Code section they believe was violated matters less than people think, because the officer usually did not see the crash, and the report does not decide fault in a civil case. Errors such as reversed party numbers or a witness left off the page should be corrected through the reporting officer in the first month.
The freeways: which CHP office
Crashes on the 5, the 118 and the 210 are handled by the California Highway Patrol, and the report is requested from the CHP Area office that wrote it. The West Valley Area office at 5825 De Soto Avenue in Woodland Hills covers most of the San Fernando Valley. The Altadena Area office at 2130 Windsor Avenue in Altadena patrols portions of the 210, the 5 and the 118 on the east side. The 118 and 210 connectors near Glenoaks Boulevard sit close to that boundary, so check the officer’s card or the report number before driving to either office.
The hospitals
Be seen the same day, or the next morning at the latest. Adrenaline hides a neck strain, a disc injury or a concussion for hours, and the date on the first medical record anchors the claim.
Providence Holy Cross Medical Center at 15031 Rinaldi Street in Mission Hills is the closest Level II trauma center, and it is where ambulances take the serious injuries from Pacoima’s freeways and truck routes. Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, the county hospital at 14445 Olive View Drive in Sylmar, has a full emergency department. Pacifica Hospital of the Valley at 9449 San Fernando Road in Sun Valley also has an emergency department and is a short drive down San Fernando Road. For soreness, sprains and cuts, an urgent care creates the same-day record you need.
Tell the treating doctor about every symptom, including the ones that seem minor, and go to the follow-up appointments. Headaches, trouble concentrating and light sensitivity in the days after a crash are concussion symptoms, and they get blamed on stress too often.
The insurance calls
Report the crash to your own insurance company promptly and ask what coverage you carry. Medical payments coverage, if you bought it, pays medical bills regardless of fault. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which insurers must offer under Insurance Code 11580.2, becomes the whole case when the driver who hit you carries California’s minimum of $30,000 per person under Vehicle Code 16056, or nothing at all.
The other driver’s insurance company will call within a day or two and ask for a recorded statement. Nothing obligates you to be recorded by a company that insures someone else, and the questions are written to produce quotable answers before you know how badly you are hurt. Decline politely and talk to a lawyer first. Treat an early settlement offer the same way: signing the release closes the claim for good, before anyone knows whether you need an MRI.
Once a claim is properly submitted, the Fair Claims Settlement Practices Regulations require the insurance company to accept or deny it within 40 days of receiving proof of claim (10 CCR 2695.7), or explain in writing why it needs more time.
If a truck was involved
A crash with a work truck, a box truck or a tractor trailer on Paxton Street or San Fernando Road is a different case from a two-car collision. The employer and the vehicle owner may be responsible along with the driver, commercial policies carry higher limits, and the company keeps driver logs, electronic logging device data, inspection records and dispatch information under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, but only for limited periods. A written preservation letter goes to the company and its insurer in the first days. Our truck accident page explains how those cases are built.
The deadlines
Under Vehicle Code 16000, a driver in a California crash that causes injury or death, or more than $1,000 in damage to any one person’s property, must file the DMV form SR-1 within 10 days, whether or not police responded. Skipping it risks a license suspension.
The deadline to file a lawsuit for personal injury in California is generally two years from the date of injury under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1. Where a minor is injured, Code of Civil Procedure 352 tolls that period.
A shorter clock runs when a public entity is involved. Metro buses run all day on Van Nuys Boulevard, Laurel Canyon and Glenoaks, city vehicles use the same streets, and a road defect the City of Los Angeles or Caltrans was responsible for can be part of a crash. Under Government Code 911.2, a written claim must be presented to the public entity within six months of the injury, on the entity’s own form, before any lawsuit. Miss it and the case is generally over. Tolling for minors does not extend that six-month rule. Our pages on bus accident claims and pedestrian accident claims cover the cases where this comes up most.
California applies pure comparative negligence under Li v. Yellow Cab. A person found partly at fault still recovers the share of damages the law allows, reduced by that percentage.
Where a Pacoima case is filed
Civil cases from Pacoima are filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court. The San Fernando Courthouse at 900 Third Street handles traffic, criminal, family and small claims matters for the northeast Valley, but personal injury lawsuits are not filed there. Under the court’s Local Rule 2.3, an unlimited civil personal injury case (one seeking more than $35,000) is filed in the Central District at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 North Hill Street, downtown, and the court may later transfer it to a district courthouse such as the Chatsworth Courthouse at 9425 Penfield Avenue or the Van Nuys Courthouse East at 6230 Sylmar Avenue. Most cases settle, but a filed case usually runs 12 to 24 months and includes a deposition.
How we handle Pacoima cases
Manoukian Law Firm’s office is at 9520 Topanga Canyon Boulevard, Suite 102, in Chatsworth, about twenty minutes west of Pacoima on the 118. The files we see from the neighborhood are left turns and rear-end crashes on Van Nuys Boulevard and Laurel Canyon, commercial vehicles on Paxton and San Fernando Road, and pedestrians hit between signals on Glenoaks. Every file is handled by the attorney you hire.
The early work is practical: pulling the Foothill or CHP report, requesting the records from Holy Cross or Olive View, sending preservation letters to the businesses and yards whose cameras faced the street, and taking over the insurance calls. Meetings happen at the Chatsworth office or by phone or video, and the firm helps clients in English, Spanish and Armenian. You can read more about car accident claims or see the Pacoima page for the neighborhood.
Key points
- On Pacoima’s surface streets the LAPD Foothill station at 12760 Osborne Street handles the report; on the 5, 118 and 210 it is the CHP, usually the West Valley Area office in Woodland Hills.
- LAPD collision reports are requested online after 45 days or by mail from the Records and Identification Division, and the officer’s opinion on fault does not decide a civil case.
- Providence Holy Cross in Mission Hills is the nearest Level II trauma center; Olive View-UCLA in Sylmar and Pacifica Hospital in Sun Valley also have emergency departments.
- File the DMV SR-1 within 10 days, report to your own insurer, and decline a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurance company.
- Claims involving Metro, the City of Los Angeles or Caltrans require a written claim within six months under Government Code 911.2.
- The general deadline to file a lawsuit is two years under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1.
Frequently asked questions
Which CHP office has my report if the crash was on the 118 near Glenoaks?
The CHP’s West Valley Area office in Woodland Hills covers most of the San Fernando Valley, and the Altadena Area office patrols portions of the 210, the 5 and the 118 on the east side. The officer’s card or the report number tells you which office wrote it, and either office can point you to the right one.
The truck driver’s company is already calling. What now?
Do not give a recorded statement and do not sign anything. A commercial carrier’s insurer moves quickly because the company’s records, from driver logs to electronic logging data, are only kept for limited periods. A preservation letter from a lawyer in the first days is what keeps that evidence available.
What if the police never came to the scene?
You can still make a report at the Foothill station on Osborne Street afterward, and the SR-1 requirement applies either way. Your photographs, the other driver’s insurance information and witness names become the record.
Should you go to Holy Cross, Olive View or an urgent care?
Go to the emergency room for a blow to the head, loss of consciousness, chest or abdominal pain, numbness, or bleeding that will not stop. For soreness, sprains and minor cuts, an urgent care creates the same-day record you need. When in doubt, choose the emergency room.
If you were hurt in a crash in Pacoima or anywhere in the northeast Valley, we are glad to talk it through, whether or not you hire anyone. Call Manoukian Law Firm at (818) 818-5031 or reach us through the contact page. Consultations are free and there is no fee unless we recover for you.
