Star Trek’s’ LeVar Burton in Car Crash

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Today) 7/14/09 – Actor LeVar Burton, best known for his role as Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” was involved in a minor car accident in West Los Angeles on Monday evening.

According to a statement made by LAPD Detective Judy Acosta to the Associated Press, neither Burton, 52, nor the 74-year-old driver of the other vehicle involved was seriously injured, and both were released after examination at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Acosta told the wire service that Burton’s vehicle struck the elderly woman’s at approximately 7:40 p.m., as she attempted to turn left on Beverly Boulevard. Burton subsequently hit a parked car, damaging two others in a chain reaction. Neither driver was charged with any wrongdoing.

Burton played La Forge, a blind starship crewman who could see with the aid of a wearable electromagnetic scanner called a “VISOR,” from 1987 to 1994. He then reprised the role for four feature films and guest-starred in an episode of “Star Trek: Voyager.”

Burton, who was born to a military couple at a U.S. Army hospital in West Germany, spent his childhood in Sacramento, Calif. He first made it big in Hollywood at the age of 19 with the role of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African tribesman kidnapped into slavery, in the 1977 TV miniseries “Roots.” He also hosted the popular PBS children’s series “Reading Rainbow” for over 20 years, beginning in 1983.

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