Stall on Freeway Triggers Fatal 5-Vehicle Crash : Accident: Car is rear-ended, then spins out of control. Woman is killed, son is critically hurt, and nine others are injured.

A Los Angeles woman was killed, her young son critically injured, and nine other people were hurt in a five-vehicle crash Sunday morning that tied up the San Diego Freeway in the Fountain Valley area for two hours, authorities said.

The woman, identified as Miriam Lima, 36, was traveling with her husband and two children to a soccer tournament in Irvine when their Toyota Celica broke down in the car-pool lane at 8:27 a.m. south of Euclid Street, said Battalion Chief Ron Satterfield of the Fountain Valley Fire Department.

Her husband restarted the vehicle, switched on the emergency flashing lights and attempted to veer to the center divider. But before it could leave the car-pool lane, the car was rear-ended by a white Plymouth Voyager carrying a family of four from Palos Verdes to the same soccer tournament, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The Toyota then spun out of control across several lanes. It was then rammed by a green Ford Explorer, and moments later, by a white Nissan Sentra, a CHP spokeswoman said. Yet another car was seen to have struck the Limas’ Toyota, but it left the scene before police arrived.

All occupants of the Limas’ Toyota were trapped in the car and had to be cut free from the wreckage, Satterfield said. The mother, who was riding in the front seat on the passenger’s side, was thrown to the rear seat by the collision.

“It was very bad,” Satterfield said. “The boy was in the back seat in the part of the car that was crushed very badly.”

Lima died at the scene, and her 6-year-old son, Carlos, was listed in critical condition at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Lima’s husband, also named Carlos, and her other son were hospitalized as well, according to the CHP.

The Limas’ older son is on a Burbank team, the Red Machine Soccer Club, and the family was apparently on its way to watch him play.

Two people from the Plymouth Voyager were lying on the highway when fire officials arrived, and soccer equipment was strewn about, Satterfield said.

“The door was open and they were lying on the ground, but I don’t know if they opened the door and fell on the ground or what,” Satterfield said.

Two of the injured, Bruce Butler, 56, and his daughter, Blair Butler, 15, both of Palos Verdes Estates, were treated for scrapes and bruises at UC Irvine Medical Center, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

The Butlers were apparently on their way to the same soccer tournament at UC Irvine, the CHP spokeswoman said.

The families did not know each other, she said.

*

Times staff writer Sharon Bernstein contributed to this report.