1 Driver Killed : 3 Cars Slam Into Horses on Freeway Near Castaic

Horses wandering loose on the Golden State Freeway near Castaic caused accidents involving four vehicles that left one man and three horses dead and another man seriously injured, authorities said Sunday.

“The highway was strewn with dead horses and wrinkled cars for about a mile,” said Los Angeles Fire Capt. Mike Carrick.

A 19-year-old La Mesa man driving a Chevrolet Monte Carlo was killed about 8:30 p.m. Saturday when his vehicle struck one of the horses broadside. The impact threw the animal into the car’s windshield with such force that it partially sheered off the vehicle’s roof, said California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Fessia.

A Los Angeles County coroner’s investigator said the man’s name was being withheld until relatives could be notified.

Passenger Hurt

A passenger in the car, Jonathan Rhodes, 19, of La Mesa, was in fair condition with a concussion Sunday at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Valencia, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Fessia said the vehicle was southbound near Templin Highway when it struck one of three horses running on the highway. The impact of the collision threw the car out of control, causing it to hit another vehicle before stopping more than one-third of a mile away. The second car was damaged slightly, but its occupants were uninjured, he said.

Two other vehicles struck and killed horses, but no one was injured in those collisions.

Fessia said he did not know where the horses had come from or how they had gotten onto the freeway.

Five other horses were on the freeway minutes earlier but were not hit by traffic, Fessia said. The drivers of other cars herded the animals off the pavement, and they ran away into a canyon, authorities said.

Fessia said he suspected that the horses had escaped from a nearby ranch. Whoever was responsible for the animals’ care could face misdemeanor manslaughter charges, he said.