SAN CLEMENTE : 6 Taken to Hospital After 4-Car Pileup

An 8-month-old girl was among six people taken to a hospital Monday morning after a four-car pileup south of the San Clemente border checkpoint on Interstate 5, the California Highway Patrol said.

No one was seriously injured in the accident, but all six victims were taken by ambulances to area hospitals for examination, said Jerry Bohrer, spokesman for the CHP’s Oceanside office.

Traffic was snarled for about half an hour as three northbound lanes were closed because of the accident, Bohrer said.

The pileup began when Salvador Ortega, a 26-year-old Chula Vista resident, failed to slow down for traffic at the checkpoint about 11:05 a.m. and rear-ended the car ahead of him, starting a chain reaction of crashes, Bohrer said. Ortega ran into Roy Anderson, 79, of Encinitas, who then struck Elvira Matta, 31, of Santa Ana, who in turn hit Molly Hagan, 29, of Los Angeles.

Matta’s 8-month-old daughter, Brenda, was in a child safety seat and was not visibly hurt, but was taken to a hospital as a precautionary measure, Bohrer said. Passenger Juana Ibarra, Matta’s 65-year-old mother, was also taken to a hospital, he said.