Crash Kills Three, Jams Santa Ana Freeway

A semi-trailer refrigerator truck plowed into slow-moving traffic on the Santa Ana freeway Saturday afternoon and careened into as many as 10 vehicles, killing three members of an Anaheim family and injuring at least seven others, authorities said.

The driver of the truck, identified as Jackie Dillard, 55, of Fresno was arrested on suspicion of felony drunken driving and manslaughter, according to a California Highway Patrol dispatcher, who said it was not immediately known if Dillard was injured in the multiple collision.

The accident began in the southbound lanes but spilled over into the northbound lanes. The CHP closed all but one lane of the northbound Santa Ana Freeway for five hours as rescue teams from local fire departments and a hospital helicopter unit removed the dead and injured and cleared the wreckage. The southbound lanes were completely closed.

“It was just a scene of absolute carnage,” said Tom Skelly, a battalion chief for the Santa Ana Fire Department. “There were at least 11 vehicles involved, including the refrigerator truck.”

Skelly said one of the injured was a boy of about 14 who was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Orange.

The dead, who were all traveling in the same car, were identified as Bartolo Lozano, 66, the driver; his brother, Antonio Lozano, 69, and Antonio’s wife, Maria Lozano, 59. The brothers died at the scene. Maria Lozano died at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana.

Seven other people were confirmed to have been taken to three different area hospitals, Skelly said.

CHP officials said the truck was going an estimated 50 to 55 m.p.h. on the southbound Interstate 5 in Santa Ana, and did not slow as it approached traffic that had slowed to speeds of 10 to 15 m.p.h.

The collision occurred at 3:10 p.m., just south of the Garden Grove Freeway before the Main Street exit in downtown Santa Ana, CHP officials said.

Rain that had fallen in the area most of the day had stopped by the time the truck came along and the sky was clear, Skelly said.

Paramedics and rescue personnel from Santa Ana, Anaheim and Orange assisted the California Highway Patrol in the rescue and wreckage-clearing efforts. Fuel from the battered vehicles was spilled on the freeway, but no fire occurred.

The accident and resulting closure severely backed up traffic on freeways that feed into the Santa Ana Freeway.