Rain-Slick Roads Lead to 1 Death

A steady autumn drizzle Sunday morning sent motorists skidding across rain-slicked Southern California freeways and contributed to at least one death, but the gloomy weather forecast brightened and the clouds began to lift by afternoon.

A 17-year-old identified by authorities as Juan Miguel of Los Angeles drowned early Sunday morning after his car skidded into the water at the Cabrillo Beach boat ramp in San Pedro.

Los Angeles Police Sgt. Jerry Claxton said Miguel was sleeping in the car while friends went fishing nearby. At about 1:40 a.m. he awoke and drove down the boat ramp to join his friends, but the ramp was slick from the rain and he was unable to stop the car, which “continued down the ramp and into the water,” said Claxton.

Miguel’s friends attempted to break the windows of the car before it filled with water but were unsuccessful. “It was an accident and weather was a contributing factor,” Claxton said.

Officer Andy Guitierrez of the California Highway Patrol said there were 19 accidents during one 30-minute period Sunday morning, significantly higher than usual but about average for a rainy day in the Los Angeles area.

At dawn, a seven-car pileup occurred on the San Bernardino Freeway at Durfee Road near El Monte, and a nine-car pileup at 9 a.m. on the northbound Harbor Freeway near the Santa Monica Freeway snarled traffic for more than an hour.

A lack of caution from motorists about the oil-slicked roadways often contributes to an increase in accidents during the first rainy days of the fall, Guitierrez said.

“All the oil and dirt and everything bakes into the highway, and the first rains lift that stuff up and make it slippery,” Guitierrez said. “People . . . hit the brakes, they go skidding all over the place.”

Bill Hibbert, a forecaster for Weatherdata Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said that although Sunday’s damp weather did not signal the onset of winter rains, it is “a hint of things to come.”

The rain was caused by a minor upper-level disturbance in the jet stream offshore, Hibbert said, adding that similar disturbances in winter can linger over the Pacific Ocean for days.

This weekend’s jet stream disturbance, however, was breaking up late Sunday, leading to a forecast of partly cloudy skies for Monday with temperatures in the 70s. Evening temperatures will be in the 50s along the coast and in the Los Angeles Basin, and in the 40s farther inland, Hibbert said.

The morning rain did not dampen the spirits for organizers of some outdoor events, although a few morning events were delayed by several hours.

A free rap concert by the Justiceville Home for the Homeless, scheduled to begin at noon on the south lawn of Los Angeles City Hall, started nearly three hours late because of the drizzle.

“It may be sprinkling a little, but people still need to be fed,” said concert organizer Gloria Bradley, as the concert got into full gear with organizers giving food and clothing to the homeless.

The grander Rolling Stones Concert at the Los Angeles Coliseum went on as scheduled at 5:30 p.m.

So did the 23rd Annual World’s Championship Chili Cookoff in Rosamond where 82 chili cooks--and an estimated 10,000 chili eaters--gathered beneath tents to sample the spicy entries, said Jeep Geherghty, a member of the International Chili Society.

“Rain, sleet or snow, we still cook,” Geherghty said.