Crashes, Spills and Spectators Snarl Freeway

All in all, Tuesday on the Ventura Freeway was a day for commuters to remember--or forget.

A spill of a flammable food preservative just before the afternoon rush hour forced the world’s busiest roadway to close in both directions through Burbank for about three hours.

Earlier, two separate accidents about a half-hour apart on the westbound freeway halted morning rush-hour traffic in some spots for as long as two hours, as eastbound gapers set a glacial pace in the other direction.

“Heavy,” California Highway Patrol Officer Bruce Turner said. “It was just heavy all day.”

Started at 7 a.m.

The trouble started about 7 a.m. on the westbound freeway west of Fallbrook Avenue, CHP Officer Kenn Rosenberg said.

Ricky Godoy, 26, of Baldwin Park, was driving a rented truck full of carpets. When a blue van tried to change lanes just in front of him, Godoy told officers later, he hit the brake pedal and turned the wheel, flipping the truck onto its right side.

Two lanes were blocked for about 20 minutes so the accident could be cleared, halting traffic to about Winnetka Avenue and causing residual congestion for about an hour, Rosenberg said. Godoy was not hospitalized, he said.

As the residual congestion was clearing up, more trouble was brewing about 10 miles to the east. A pickup truck, two cars and two trucks pulling semi-trailers met unceremoniously on the westbound Ventura Freeway west of Van Nuys Boulevard, about a half hour after the earlier accident.

The chain-reaction accident was triggered when one of the cars struck the pickup while changing lanes, sending both vehicles spinning out of control, Rosenberg said. The pickup struck two trucks and a second car, and the first car became embedded in the underside of one of the trucks and was dragged about 100 yards.

2 Slightly Hurt

Two of the drivers were hurt slightly. The driver of the car, Maria Rivera, 39, of Van Nuys, was treated for cuts and bruises at a local hospital. The driver of the pickup, Virginio Bacani, 45, of Los Angeles, suffered cuts, bruises and a concussion, Rosenberg said.

The accidents backed up westbound traffic well beyond the Hollywood Freeway, a grind that lasted nearly two hours and was “one of the worst,” Rosenberg said.

But the worst was yet to come.

Three boxes of sorbic acid, a food preservative, fell off of a truck approaching Cahuenga Boulevard on the westbound Ventura Freeway shortly before 2 p.m.

As the chemical seeped onto the eastbound freeway lanes, it caught fire, Officer Clio Green said. Officers speculate that a spark may have ignited the substance.

The truck, meanwhile, had continued on its way.

The fire was extinguished almost immediately, but the chemical cleanup caused all lanes of the freeway to be closed from Buena Vista Street to the Hollywood Freeway until shortly before 5 p.m., Green said.