14-Truck Pileup Delays Traffic for Hours; 2 People Hurt

A hit-and-run accident, exacerbated by a slick road, may have led to a 14-truck pileup early Saturday on the Golden State Freeway, causing moderate injuries and delaying traffic throughout the day.

The Los Angeles Fire Department and the California Highway Patrol spent nearly 12 hours clearing the roadway of 18-wheelers, a process delayed when firefighters discovered what looked like a hazardous material escaping from a tractor-trailer.

A HazMat team determined it was just ordinary housecleaning fluid, said CHP Officer Wil Dixon.

The chain-reaction wreck began about 3:44 a.m. just north of Balboa Boulevard when one big rig sideswiped another as it exited a truck tunnel at the Foothill Freeway interchange, the CHP said.

The truck that was hit was deflected across the left side of the roadway and slammed into a cement barrier about 250 yards south of the tunnel, blocking both southbound truck lanes.

The other truck left the scene, according to initial CHP reports.

Five separate collisions within two minutes followed the initial accident when several trucks, exiting the tunnel at speeds of about 60 mph in a 40-mph zone, came upon the truck blocking their path, the CHP said.

CHP officials said the wet road from the night’s rain made it harder for the drivers to brake in time.

“It wasn’t a case of these trucks running into a fog bank. They just had no time to stop from hitting the truck that was in their way,” said Dixon, the lead investigator on the case.

“It’s just a matter of speed and physics,” he said. “Whenever you get those big trucks ramming into each other, it’s going to do a lot of damage. We were lucky no one was seriously injured.”

Most of the drivers stayed in their trucks for protection until the collisions subsided.

Two people were taken to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, where both were treated for fractured thighs before they were transferred to other hospitals. A Providence Holy Cross spokeswoman described the injured as a 16-year-old Los Angeles girl, who was a passenger in one truck, and a 34-year-old man.

Two light poles also were knocked down during the pileup.

“It was pretty incredible,” Dixon said. “It looked like when you’d play with your Tonka trucks.”

The initial accident remains under investigation.

Although the driver of the truck that slammed into the barrier said he was hit by another truck that fled the scene, CHP officials said they were unable to locate any other eyewitnesses.