Freeway Closed After Ice Sends Cars Colliding

The Antelope Valley Freeway was briefly closed this morning after snow and ice caused 16 accidents, including a 10-car pileup, in less than an hour, the California Highway Patrol reported.

There were no serious injuries in any of the accidents, but tangled cars littered a five-mile stretch of the freeway from Angeles Forest Highway north to Palmdale Boulevard, CHP Officer Miguel Siordia said.

“That’s the area where the snow hit hardest,” said Siordia, who noted that ice conditions were listed as a cause in every accident on the highway.

“We started getting snow at 5:15 a.m. People started crashing by 6,” Siordia said. “They were driving too fast for the conditions.”

By 6:30 a.m. the CHP had reports of 16 separate accidents, four of which resulted in injuries, Siordia said.

One of those accidents involved 10 cars that collided in a chain-reaction pileup in the southbound lanes near the Angeles Forest Highway, he said.

The CHP shut down all lanes of the four-lane freeway at 7 a.m.

“People were driving into the center divider to get around and were getting stuck. We had to close it down until the tow trucks could go in and get everybody out,” Siordia said.

CHP officers began escorting lines of commuters along the freeway at 8 a.m., Siordia said. At 9 a.m., after the ice and snow in the area had melted, the freeway was completely reopened.

Siordia said the accidents and closure made a miserable and long commute for many residents heading south to Los Angeles. He explained that the accidents occurred during the high point of that commute.

“In the Antelope Valley, our rush hour is an hour earlier than in Los Angeles,” he said. “It was bumper to bumper when these accidents started happening.”

Siordia said the Antelope Valley Freeway is usually closed only once or twice a year because of weather conditions.