A Reseda woman avoided serious injuries after a lifeguard truck hit her as she lay in the sand in Hermosa Beach last Friday afternoon, according to authorities.

Claudia Prada, who is a Spanish professor at El Camino College, lay next to lifeguard tower 28 and fell asleep after a body boarding session in the water when she awoke to a lifeguard yelling, “Stop,” at approximately 5:30 p.m.

According to Capt. Garth Canning of the Los Angeles County Lifeguard Division, the driver of the truck, whose name is not being released, was on a routine patrol in a yellow Nissan Frontier when he hit the woman.

Prada, who was sore and shaken up, suffered no serious injuries from the accident.

“An investigation is still going on, but there was an incident in that a county lifeguard vehicle made contact with a patron on the beach,” said Canning. “The information I received is that there were no serious physical injuries.”

The woman explained to authorities she felt like she was being lifted up. She then opened her eyes to the bottom portion of the truck’s bumper.

The driver never saw the woman on the beach. Another lifeguard in the area told him to stop the truck and he did. The driver never actually rolled over the woman since he stopped the car once it struck her.

“Being that there are 50 million people on the beach, this kind of accident is not that common but it has happened before and one accident is one too many,” said Canning.

Officials instituted safety measures two years ago after a lifeguard patrolling the shore in Manhattan Beach hit a man. Lifeguards driving on the sand are now required to turn on audible alerts, which is a beeping sound similar to that of a trash truck.

“The trucks allow us to respond to emergency situations. They are what we call our rolling toolboxes,” said Canning. “It holds our rescue gear, medical equipment, communications and radio systems, and allows us to respond to an emergency quicker, to whatever we find be it on land or in the water. We try to limit our driving because it does always pose a risk and we only drive for good reasons.”