Two successive accidents involving a total of nine big rigs was blamed on light rain that made the roadway slippery last week on Interstate 5 in the Newhall Pass in California.
According to the California Highway Patrol, the driver of a dump truck was traveling south in a truck bypass lane on I-5 at Highway 14 when he lost control about 2:20 a.m., causing a collision involving four big rigs. Traffic behind the accident began backing up, and a short while later, five big rigs approaching the scene collided.
KTLA News spoke to a FedEx driver who said the roads were slick and the crash happened very quickly. His air bags deployed, but he was not hurt. Emergency crews had to extricate one of the truckers, who was trapped with the entire dash of the semi on his lower extremities. He was taken to an area hospital in stable condition.
“It had been raining, and there was a little drizzle going on,” said big rig driver Angel Flores. “This highway gets really slippery on the first rains of the year.”
The truck bypass lanes were shut down completely for most of the day Tuesday and as much as 400 gallons of diesel fuel spilled onto the roadway, according to reports. A Caltrans crew was brought in to spread sand on the road.
