‘A Disaster’ : Freeway Jam Started With 5-Vehicle Crash, Tons of Sod, Then It Was Gridlock City

As a sign of things to come, 40,000 pounds of sod tumbled onto the San Diego Freeway, when two big rigs, a truck and two pickups collided early Thursday.

Two accidents and a few hours later, commuters still were planted in northbound and southbound lanes, as the traffic mess spread. And spread.

If Thursday wasn’t the worst day that Orange County commuters have seen in a while, it was close. Traffic on several Orange County freeways came to a grinding halt, and commuters who could get off the freeway landed smack in a sea of gridlocked cars on surface streets. Most drivers didn’t even notice that more crashes and fender benders followed the smash of the big rigs since no one was going anywhere anyway.

A Series of Swerves

“It was a disaster out there,” California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Leslie Hill said.

It began about 5:40 a.m. on the southbound 405 just south of Euclid Avenue, when the driver of a Nissan truck swerved to the left to avoid a collision. However, he swerved into a big rig, which swerved into another big rig, which swerved into a Chevrolet pickup, which swerved into a Volkswagen pickup, Hill said.

One of the big rigs, a concrete pumper, bumped into the concrete center divider, sending chucks of the divider onto northbound lanes, Hill said. At least two northbound cars were damaged from the concrete, causing northbound traffic to also back up.

The other big rig, carrying a trailer and a forklift, dumped 40,000 pounds of sod and spilled diesel fuel over two southbound lanes, Hill said.

Motorcycle Went Down

Two minutes later, a motorcycle struck the center divider as traffic slowed on the freeway near Brookhurst Street. The rider suffered a broken arm.

“That was only a mile away from the first accident,” Hill said. “That just made it worse, although at that point I don’t think it really mattered.”

As traffic still inched along at 7:45 a.m., a North American van sideswiped a Volkswagen Fox on the southbound San Diego Freeway north of Bolsa Chica Road. But the CHP was so busy with other area accidents, officers didn’t arrive on the scene until 9 a.m., CHP Officer John Syme said.

“It’s been a peach of a day,” said Syme, who also handled three other accidents Thursday morning. One of those was a five-car pileup at 6:20 a.m. on the westbound Garden Grove Freeway at Valley View Street, and another was a rear-ender at 8:40 a.m. on the northbound San Diego Freeway south of Beach Boulevard.

“Unfortunately, this was during the peak commute hours,” Hill said. “Traffic was backed up, at a stop, to Seal Beach Boulevard, and I’m sure it went beyond that. That area has heavy traffic already during that time of day.”

SigAlert in Effect

The CHP’s Westminster office was so busy Thursday that one of its smog-control officers took an accident report.

A SigAlert was in effect on the southbound San Diego Freeway for more than 4 hours.

“There was no rain, and it was not a major holiday--there was an awful lot going on for an ordinary weekday,” Hill said.

Frustrated by the gridlock in front of them, drivers tried to escape to the Garden Grove Freeway, Pacific Coast Highway and surface streets, where they discovered that everyone else had the same idea.

As a result, Fountain Valley Police Lt. Mike Hanrahan said: “We had an inordinate number of accidents--eight accidents” between 7 and 10 a.m. “That’s about 2 days’ worth. There was just a glut of cars, and the problem was we couldn’t get the cops to the accidents.”

Seeking a Clear Path

Commuters left the San Diego Freeway at Magnolia, Brookhurst and Euclid streets, hoping to find a clear path to their jobs. But many half-hour commutes turned into 1-hour to 2-hour drives.

“They were running into so much traffic they were trying to get around it by making U-turns. . . . It was a good day to be indoors,” Hanrahan said.

Still, it could have been worse. Except for the motorcyclist, no serious injuries were reported in any of the accidents, authorities said.

Syme, an 8-year veteran of the CHP, understated: “We normally don’t have days like this.”