PASADENA >> An elderly parking lot supervisor fought for his life at a hospital Sunday after he suffered major head injuries in a utility cart accident while working at a parking lot servicing the UCLA football game at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena Saturday night, officials said.
The accident took place about 11 p.m. in the parking lot of Parsons Corporation near De Lacey Avenue and Holly Street, Pasadena police Lt. John Mercado said. The lot was being used as a shuttle lot to provide parking for Saturday evening’s football game.
The victim, a Lancaster man in his 70s employes by LAZ Parking, was driving an electric utility cart with a coworker riding as a passenger just prior to the mishap, Mercado said.
The supervisor exited the car to pick up some debris in front of the vehicle, the lieutenant said. Simultaneously, he instructed his coworker to take the cart and use it to dispose of some trash.
As they coworker slid over from the passenger seat to the driver seat, he accidentally disengaged the emergency brake or stepped on the accelerator, Mercado said.
“The cart lunged forward and hit the victim,” he said. “He fell down and hit his head on the asphalt.”
Paramedics took the critically injured man to Huntington Hospital, where doctors rushed him into emergency surgery, police said. An update on his condition was not available Sunday afternoon.
Representatives of LAZ Parking could not be reached for comment Sunday.