About 100 accidents occurred on rain-soaked Los Angeles freeways between 5 and 10 a.m. Friday, nearly double the number for the same period last week when roads were dry, the California Highway Patrol reported.
Traffic was jammed throughout the Southland due to crashes and the heavy downpour. There was even a fatality earlier in the pre-dawn darkness when a big rig truck overturned.
The almost-100 crashes for the Friday rush hour compared with 57 during the same time frame a week earlier.
About 5:50 a.m., a big rig overturned on the transition from the westbound Foothill (210) Freeway to the southbound Golden State (5) Freeway, blocking the roadway for several hours, according to the CHP. This was not the fatal truck crush that took place a few hours earlier, as no injuries were reported in this accident.
A few minutes after the crash, several other vehicles slid on the muddy roadway and nearly crashed into the disabled truck, the CHP reported.
From midnight to 5 a.m., there were “numerous” crashes on the freeways, but exact numbers were not available, the CHP reported.
Among those was a 1:35 a.m. crash that killed a trucker, whose big rig overturned on the westbound Glenn Anderson (105) Freeway transition road to the northbound Long Beach (710) Freeway, the CHP reported.
In the rainy five-hour period beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, there were 165 accidents on Los Angeles freeways, compared with 54 during the same time frame a week earlier.
—City News Service