4 Die in Freeway Collison With Tanker

Four people were killed when a Chevrolet Blazer slammed into a jackknifed gasoline tanker on the San Bernardino Freeway in Claremont late Wednesday, causing a fiery explosion that left authorities with few leads Thursday as to the victims’ identities.

A 36-year-old Glendora woman, whose name was not released, was believed to be at the wheel of the Blazer when it hit the twin tanker, authorities said. The three other victims also were riding in the vehicle, police said.

It will be days before a comparison of dental records can be made to confirm the identities of the four people who were trapped in the flaming vehicle, a Los Angeles County coroner’s spokesman said.

The tanker driver, Linzell Washington, 52, of La Puente, was uninjured in the crash, which occurred at 11:25 p.m. Wednesday. The inferno closed the freeway in both directions for several hours.

Washington told CHP officers that he was driving westbound at about 55 m.p.h. when the tanker’s brakes locked and spun the rig out of control, stopping about 200 feet east of Indian Hill Boulevard, CHP spokesman Dennis Paulson said.

The spin-out left the tanker jackknifed, straddling three lanes of the freeway, with the cab’s headlights pointed northeast. Paulson theorized that the driver of the oncoming Blazer “could have been distracted by the headlights” of the tanker.

Washington had left his cab to check on the damage when the Blazer struck the rig’s rear tank.