1st of 3 Storms Drops Nearly Inch of Rain on Valley Areas

The first of what forecasters said would be three winter storms blitzed the San Fernando Valley on Thursday morning, dumping nearly an inch of rain in some areas, causing dozens of fender benders, traffic delays and serious accidents on the Foothill and Antelope Valley freeways.

On advice from the Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles police shut down the Sepulveda Basin for more than an hour.

Meteorologists at WeatherData, a company that provides forecasts for The Times, say Southern Californians can expect at least two more storms in the next four days. Thursday’s showers started around 3:30 in the morning and ended at 10 a.m., leaving in their wake overflowing gutters and frustrated motorists.

Traffic was shut down beginning at 8:05 a.m. for almost two hours on the Antelope Valley Freeway north of Sand Canyon Road when a woman traveling north caused a six-vehicle pileup, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Doug Sweeney.

As she drove her Mercedes-Benz through a construction site along the freeway her car grazed the concrete median. “She overreacts, swerves to the right and starts to spin out of control,” Sweeney said.

Behind her, the driver of a semi-trailer truck slammed on his brakes. The truck began to jackknife, the driver recovered control and barely avoided the Mercedes, Sweeney said. But a second semi-trailer broadsided the Mercedes, causing major chest injuries to its driver, a 52-year-old Woodland Hills woman. She was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, where she underwent surgery Thursday morning. The truck driver was uninjured.

Two minutes later, just 100 feet south of the original accident, a 76-year-old Tarzana man suffered a broken neck when a Ford Thunderbird crashed into his minivan, Sweeney said.

The driver of the Thunderbird suffered major chest and leg injuries. Both men were taken to Newhall Memorial Hospital and are expected to survive, Sweeney said.

“Rain is a contributing factor to the crashes,” he said.

Authorities pointed to a surge in collisions throughout the area.

On the Foothill Freeway near Osborne Street, three people were injured, one of them critically, in a collision, said Fire Department spokesman Jim Wells. In Studio City, a police cruiser smashed into a fire hydrant.

WeatherData meteorologist John Sherwin said the rainstorms are the southern edge of a cold front blowing in from the Pacific Ocean that has drenched the Pacific Northwest and Northern California.

“The second storm looks pretty similar to the one you saw [Thursday],” Sherwin said. “It’s going to be another quick-hitter around the late morning or in the early afternoon on Saturday. Then an even stronger storm system will come in that could really affect your weather Monday and Tuesday with an extended period of rain.”

Sherwin said to expect scattered showers that could become thunderstorms early next week. Total rainfall levels could rise above an inch in some parts of the Valley, he said.