30-Car Pileup Snarls Grapevine

Thirty cars, trucks and emergency vehicles collided in dense fog on both sides of Interstate 5 over the Grapevine today, causing nearly a dozen injuries and forcing the closure of the highway to morning traffic.

California Highway Patrol spokesmen in Los Angeles and Bakersfield said 20 vehicles piled up on the northbound lanes and 10 on the southbound side in a chain reaction apparently triggered by three separate accidents from 8 a.m. to 8:30. a.m. A Kern County fire captain responding to the first accident--an overturned tanker--and an ambulance attendant were among those injured. The CHP closed the southbound lanes from about 8:30 a.m. to 10:40 a.m. and the northbound lanes from about 8:15 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., spokesmen said.