Advertisement

Southland Drivers Skid Into Wet-Weather Form : Rain: Once again, storms turn freeways into a tragicomic collection of crashes and jams.

Share
TIMES STAFF WRITER

It happens every time. Heavy rains fall and the Southern California commute degenerates into a thunderous demolition derby, a tragicomedy of rear-end collisions, multicar pileups and solo spin-outs.

Traffic congests, slows and then sloshes to a full stop--leaving the cultivators of car culture and veteran travelers of the West’s first freeway system plenty of idle time to wonder why we never learned how to drive in the rain.

The past two days were no exception. Authorities reported that the number of accidents on Southern California freeways nearly quadrupled as one of the biggest rainstorms in years swept across the region. There were two fatalities.

Advertisement

More rain was falling Thursday night, and in a quirk of timing, outbound commuters were able to tune in to a rare address from Mayor Tom Bradley. His 5 p.m. topic: How to deal with the mandatory water rationing that begins today.

Part of the problem stems from the drought-parched roads, which turn slick with grease and rubber residue at the first sign of a drizzle. Caltrans tries to prevent this hazard by building its freeways with half-inch-deep grooves running through the pavement, allowing better drainage.

In fact, Jerry Baxter, director of the district spanning Los Angeles and Ventura counties, said California pioneered the technique, which is used widely around the country. But when rain drenches the road, puddles form on the shoulders or motorists cruise on badly worn tires, a thin sheet of water occasionally can form between the highway and the wheel.

“When you’re truly hyrdoplaning, I mean you’re just sliding on glass, There’s absolutely no friction,” Baxter said. “You’ve lost it.”

The authorities also said that Southland residents, accustomed to racing along within inches of the next bumper, exacerbate matters in the rain by not adjusting their dearly held driving habits to the weather.

“Things get screwed up,” said Officer Steve Munday, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol. “People just don’t change their driving habits.”

Advertisement

Motorists follow too close, drive too fast, hit the brakes too often and forget that the sun may have baked the rubber of their windshield wipers, hampering vision.

“I think it’s just our hurried lifestyle, whether it’s sunny or rainy or not,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Don Blades, a traffic officer at the Industry station. “If people would just use common sense, a lot of this wouldn’t occur.”

Certainly, this storm was extraordinary: Nearly three inches of rain deluged the Civic Center, a freak tornado ripped through Irvine and a boulder tore down a cliff in Topanga, ramming a water heater and setting a home ablaze.

The roadside results also were extraordinary, with the Wednesday night and Thursday morning commutes producing statistics that only hinted at the horrors.

At the CHP central bureau, 58 accidents were reported Wednesday, nearly four times the weekday average of 15. Emergency calls to Los Angeles police jumped from about 5,500 on Tuesday to more than 6,400 on Wednesday--a “highly unusual” hike, officers said. The CHP declared seven SigAlerts during the day, rather than the four or five a week that usually occur. The Automobile Club of Southern California was summoned by 17,527 motorists--60% above the average for a dry weekday.

There were rear-enders in La Puente, head-ons in Van Nuys and spin-outs in South Pasadena. A Beverly Hills driver sheared off a fire hydrant. A pickup in Malibu did a 180-degree turn into a parked car. In Sylmar, several motorists sank into 6-inch-deep mud coating Foothill Boulevard. And storm waters washed out an embankment near a railroad bridge in North Hollywood, threatening to cause a mudslide on Lankershim Boulevard.

Advertisement

“It’s like doing double time,” said Ben Crosby, 43, a veteran RTD bus driver who on Thursday ended his nerve-jangling shift along Wilshire Boulevard with a copious glass of cognac. “Your body really tenses up.”

Rain-slick pavement and bad tires contributed to a fatal accident Wednesday, when a car driven by 22-year-old Jose Alfaro of Port Hueneme slipped off the Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu. Another man died Thursday morning after his car slid off the Pasadena Freeway, rolled down a concrete embankment and plunged into the swollen waters of the Arroyo Seco.

In Monrovia, 60 children got a scare Wednesday afternoon when their school bus skidded across three lanes of the Foothill (210) Freeway, careening off the center divider and sliding to a rest along the right-hand shoulder.

No one was injured, but driver Leona Underwood decided to take Thursday off.

On the Ventura Freeway at Westlake Boulevard, a car with balding rear tires slipped off the road and wrapped around a metal pole, with the front fender and back bumper touching.

The driver and passenger, who were rained upon when the car ripped open, were taken to nearby hospitals with broken bones.

“It was unbelievable,” said CHP Officer Randy Pickens of the West Valley bureau, where the number of accidents Thursday morning jumped from an average of 10 to 44. “We’ve had some real doozies.”

Advertisement

For most commuters, though, the worst of it was the infuriating sensation of sitting in a $20,000 vehicle on one of the best freeways the world has designed (the region has plenty) and going absolutely nowhere because someone lost it in a puddle that wouldn’t daunt drivers in more weather-wise cities.

“It’s bad enough without the rain,” said David Maxwell, 51, a sales tax consultant for the state, “but Californians are so used to driving without any impediments that they get very impatient when anything is in their way.”

As he spoke, Maxwell was seated in his Datsun 300 ZX on a downtown street. He was pulled over waiting to pick up his wife for the 60-mile ride home to North Rialto. It was 5:30 p.m. Thursday and starting to sprinkle again. Based on the morning’s commute, Maxwell figured he would be home by 7:30 p.m.--if he was lucky.

Times staff writers Tina Anima and David Ferrell contributed to this story.

MORE RAIN: Biggest storm in years brings heavy downpours and a rare tornado in Irvine. A3

Advertisement