2 Truck Crashes Snarl Morning Traffic in Orange County

A pair of crashes involving big rig trucks left one woman dead and 23 people injured, crippling two of Orange County’s major freeways during Wednesday morning’s rush hour.

A fiery midnight pileup on the Santa Ana Freeway in Anaheim took nine hours to clear, while a truck that flipped over on the Riverside Freeway during the morning rush hour killed an Irvine woman and left tens of thousands of local drivers in nightmarish gridlock.

In Anaheim, amid orange cones and flashing lights warning of overnight construction, a big rig driver from Palm Springs rounded a bend to find the red taillights of slowed traffic. The driver crashed into six cars, through a metal rail and into oncoming traffic lanes, where spilled fuel ignited.

More than 15 people, some returning home from a day at Disneyland, were rushed to four area hospitals for treatment.

Several hours later in Buena Park, a truck driver winding through traffic on the Riverside Freeway at 8:30 a.m. also came upon a group of slowed cars. Too late, the driver swerved to his left. His truck sideswiped two vehicles and rammed into the center divider. The force of the crash sent the truck toppling over, crushing Patricia Coon, 58, of Irvine, as she sat at the wheel of her red Jeep Cherokee. She was declared dead at the scene.

Speed was a likely factor in both crashes, according to officers with the California Highway Patrol. In the Anaheim incident, the construction closure--part of a major improvement project that has created months of commuting chaos--may have helped set the stage for danger.

“We have had four incidents now from accidents involving construction on the freeways,” said Cathy Semar, a spokeswoman for St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange and a member of that hospital’s disaster committee. “Our hospital has been on alert for some time now.”

Witnesses to the Anaheim crash described it as hellish scene, with 100-foot flames erupting from the spilled fuel. Passersby and the truck driver scrambled to help drivers flee their crumpled cars. Two people were severely injured.