5 Die in 2 Unrelated Accidents

Within one bloody hour Thursday night, five people were killed in two unrelated traffic accidents in the Santa Clarita Valley--three when a big rig and dump truck slammed together on the Golden State Freeway, authorities said.

The first crash, at about 7:30 p.m., occurred when a passenger car hit two people walking across Soledad Canyon Road east of Sierra Highway, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Norlemann said.

The two pedestrians, a Canyon Country couple in their 70s whose identities were not immediately released, died at the scene.

An investigation was continuing into the accident, he said.

An hour later, an empty semi-trailer truck slammed into a dump truck with a trailer on the southbound Golden State Freeway near the Templin Highway exit, CHP Officer Bruce Ferrier said.

Three people, whose identities were not immediately known, were thrown onto the road and killed in that collision, which sent debris spilling across three lanes of the freeway.