Crashes in Fog Close Grapevine

The state’s busiest north-south thoroughfare, Interstate 5, was shut down Friday afternoon at the Grapevine after 28 vehicles were involved in collisions set off by the thick fog.

Nine people were injured in a rash of accidents that involved big rigs and cars and stretched about two miles near the northern Los Angeles County boundary, according to a California Highway Patrol spokesman. The conditions of the injured were not immediately available.

Visibility was reduced to 75 feet because of the dense fog at the time of the first accident, which occurred about 2:30 p.m. Both sides of the freeway were closed for about three hours.

The crash scene near the Grapevine was the most dramatic in the rain-soaked Los Angeles region Friday.

Although Southern California was expected to be dry today, more showers could return late Sunday, said Jon Erdman, meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides weather forecasts to The Times.

But another storm could arrive Wednesday for the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl football game.

By late Friday, authorities were responding to dozens of traffic accidents throughout the Los Angeles area.

In South Los Angeles, one person was killed and another injured in a crash near West 59th Street and Broadway, although investigators were trying to determine whether it was rain-related.

In Pico Rivera, another motorist was killed when he struck a parked vehicle near Rosemead Boulevard and Dunlap Crossing in what a sheriff’s sergeant said may have been a rain-related accident.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department assigned swift-water rescue teams to three county fire stations near the Los Angeles River, said Charlotte Kramer, a County Fire Department supervising dispatcher.

Friday’s storm dumped half an inch to nearly an inch of rain throughout the region. Among the measurements: Civic Center, 0.27 of an inch; Los Angeles International Airport, 1.05; Long Beach, 0.45; Redondo Beach, 0.90; Northridge, 0.39; Pasadena, 0.36, and San Gabriel, 0.40.