Accidents Slow Commute to Crawl as Storm Sweeps Through Area

Fender-benders abounded and residents of fire-charred hills watched for possible floods and mudslides Thursday as a Pacific storm swept down the California coast.

Reaching from the Northwest into Mexico, the storm system is expected to dump 2 to 4 inches of rain on the southern part of the state before dying out tonight.

Drivers accustomed to bone-dry freeways were involved in hundreds of accidents in the region, slowing commuter traffic to a crawl in some spots and exasperating the California Highway Patrol.

“People continue to drive too fast, too close,” grumbled CHP Officer Dwight McDonald, who patrols the West San Fernando Valley. “They change lanes like they’re driving in the summer. They crash. They roll over. And they make us earn our pay.”

Several big-rig trucks crashed, closing freeway lanes. At least three such accidents occurred on one stretch of Interstate 5 in the Santa Clarita Valley, tying up traffic for hours. In another incident on I-5, a CHP cruiser was hit while the officer was investigating a traffic accident.

In Ventura County, a single-car rollover on California 126 near Fillmore took the life of a Camarillo man, authorities said.

There was sporadic flooding along roadways, but in Malibu, where wildfires denuded slopes last month, officials breathed a sigh of relief as the canyon hills held throughout the day.

Still, they braced themselves for heavy rains during the night. “Because it’s coming down later than anticipated, we don’t want to get a false sense of security,” said Sarah Maurice, a Malibu spokeswoman. “It’s all going to depend on what happens tonight.”

Malibu officials expressed frustration that more residents were not sandbagging hills along Malibu Road and other high-risk routes.

“We would like to see more people getting in there and using the sandbags,” Maurice said. “If not, and we get any kind of runoff, this may be a good lesson for the rains in January and February. That’s when we really have the potential to get hammered.”

By Thursday evening, 1.2 inches of rain had fallen at the Los Angeles Civic Center.