Rain Takes Toll on Roads

Two people were killed and about 13 others were injured Friday in traffic accidents apparently caused by the storm that pounded the Southland, authorities said.

Interstate 5 was shut down Friday afternoon at the Grapevine after 28 vehicles were involved in a series of collisions leaving nine people injured.

Five people, including a mother and baby, were being treated at Northridge Hospital Medical Center for injuries suffered in a 3:30 p.m. accident in the 8700 block of Corbin Avenue, said Jim Wells, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Two hours later in Sherman Oaks, another seven people were injured--two critically--in two wrecks at about the same time on the transition road between the San Diego and the Ventura freeways, said Officer Garry Goldenberg, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol.

One of the critically injured victims was taken to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center and the other to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, according to authorities.

The other victims were treated at the scene.

Friday’s storm, dropping nearly half an inch of rain in places, was the first of three expected to hit Southern California--with a second, weaker system rolling through Sunday night and possibly a third arriving just in time for Wednesday’s Tournament of Roses Parade.

Although the amount of rainfall was not unusual, it was accompanied by a spate of accidents across the Los Angeles area.

In about a two-hour period Friday afternoon, the Highway Patrol had reported more than 130 accidents, mostly minor.

A 15-year-old passenger in a car was killed Friday afternoon near West 59th Street and Broadway in South Los Angeles in what officials believed to be a rain-related accident.

Earlier in the day, a motorist was killed shortly after midnight when the truck he was driving struck a parked vehicle near the Rosemead Boulevard and Dunlap Crossing in Pico Rivera.

That accident also appeared to be rain-related, according to officers at the Pico Rivera sheriff’s station, which was still investigating the case.

The multi-car crash on the Golden State Freeway closed the state’s busiest north-south thoroughfare both directions about 2:20 p.m. near Gorman after four different accidents involving at least 28 vehicles.

Two of the injured were in critical condition late Friday at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, a hospital staffer said.

The accidents--all around Lebec School Road--were blamed on the fog, said Lorissa Dross, a dispatcher with the California Highway Patrol Bakersfield station, adding that they were not part of a chain reaction.

The accidents occurred from about 1:45 p.m. to 2 p.m., authorities said, with the first crash involving three large trucks. They occurred just as officers were escorting traffic because visibility was down to 75 feet.

The route was reopened at about 5:30 p.m.

“People refuse to slow down,” one officer said about motorists.

Other accidents around the Valley were mostly noninjury fender benders, according to the LAPD.

“We’ve responded to numerous accidents,” said Sgt. Ben Lee of the Los Angeles Police Department Valley Traffic Division, adding that is common during rains.

As a precaution, 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 supervising dispatcher.

The storm had dumped about half an inch of rain at the most in the Valley as of late Friday, said John Erdman, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides weather information to The Times.

Woodland Hills registered .44 inches and Northridge .39 inches. The Civic Center received .27 inches.

Today’s forecast called for light showers giving way to mostly cloudy skies with patchy fog near the coast, Erdman said. Sunday should bring variable clouds with a chance of rain by evening.

The early week storm would most likely only bring light showers to the Southland as the main force would hit north of Monterey, Erdman said.

“It will mostly brush Southern California. You’re not going to get anywhere near what they’re going to get” in Northern California, he said.

Times staff writer Richard Simon contributed to this story.