7-Car Crash Injures 9, Snarls Traffic

Nine people were injured, two critically, in a multi-car crash in Sepulveda Pass on Tuesday afternoon that tied up traffic on the San Diego Freeway in both directions for more than an hour and a half.

At one point, cars were backed up for three miles as paramedics tended to the injured and road crews worked to remove the wreckage of seven cars involved in the 1:39 p.m. pileup in the southbound lanes near the Skirball Center Drive exit.

The cause of the accident was under investigation Tuesday night, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Five of the injured motorists were taken by ambulance to local hospitals, including a woman in critical condition and two children with minor injuries who went to UCLA Medical Center, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.

A critically injured man and a woman in serious condition were taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, Humphrey said.

All four lanes of the freeway were briefly blocked, although by 1:45 p.m. only the two left lanes remained closed.