Afternoon rainfall in the San Gorgonio Pass led to three freeway crashes in the span of an hour Friday.
Heavy rain and wet roads caused 56-year-old Lorenzo Robles of Ontario to lose control of the truck, which veered off the right shoulder and through a barbed wire freeway perimeter fence, Meyer said.
The truck slid down the dirt embankment and overturned, blocking Railroad Avenue, the frontage road just off the interstate.
Robles was trapped in the crushed cab of the truck and had to be cut out of the rig by county firefighters. He was taken to Desert Regional Medical Center with a broken arm, Meyer said.
Railroad Avenue was blocked for about three hours before authorities could clear the scene.
Rain also led to a minivan overturning just minutes later about a mile east of the big rig crash near Haughen Lehmann Way. The crash did not block freeway lanes, but traffic slowed in the area as motorists got a look at the wreck, Meyer said.
The van overturned in the center median, causing non-life-threatening injuries to the driver and her passenger.
At 1:45 p.m., a woman driving a red Ford Mustang lost control of her vehicle in the afternoon rains, spinning out on eastbound Interstate 10, just past the Whitewater cutoff road.
Meyer said the woman’s car veered off the freeway and down a steep embankment, ending up on a pile of rocks.
The woman sustained minor injuries and was taken to a hospital, Meyer said.
— City News Service