Driver Killed and 4 Hurt as Car Crosses Road and Hits 3 Vehicles

A Castaic man may have fallen asleep behind the wheel when he drove his car over a divider on Soledad Canyon Road in Santa Clarita on Thursday, killing himself and injuring four others, a sheriff’s deputy said.

The 43-year-old driver, who police declined to identify pending notification of his family, was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital and later pronounced dead.

The accident occurred about 6 a.m. near Greenbrier Mobile Home Park when the man, who was traveling east, drove over a raised concrete divider and sideswiped an oncoming pickup truck, which slid into eastbound traffic and overturned, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Clint Bowers said.

The car continued traveling against traffic and collided with a minivan, then crashed into another pickup truck and stopped in the middle of the road. The drivers of the second pickup and the minivan lost control and drove into the bushes, Bowers said.

“He might have fallen asleep,” Bowers said of the car’s driver. “The road is straight and there was no reason for him to make a turn.

“There was no indication that he lost control or there was mechanical failure or erratic driving prior to the collision,” he said. “He drove over it gradually. It looked like it was a lane change.”

Those injured were treated at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital and released, except Vernon Bean, 70, of Canyon Country, who was driving the second pickup. He suffered broken legs and was admitted.

In an unrelated accident near Castaic, a truck trailer delivering newspapers spilled diesel fuel after it rear-ended another truck, forcing the California Highway Patrol to close three northbound lanes of the Golden State Freeway south of Osito Canyon Road, a CHP spokeswoman said.

“It (the first truck) went across four lanes of traffic, struck the center divider and went through it,” CHP Officer Wendy Moore said.

When it came to rest on the other side of the highway, about 50 to 60 gallons of fuel had spilled, she said.

The second trailer overturned and dumped pallets of cardboard onto the road; its detachable truck came to rest on the highway’s shoulder.

No one was hurt in the 4:45 a.m. accident.