Dozens Hurt as 150 Vehicles Crash on I-10

Up to 150 vehicles were involved in numerous pileups and about 70 people were injured--some seriously--on Interstate 10 on Wednesday during a powerful rainstorm, the largest freeway accident in recent Southern California history, authorities said.

Dozens of people were rushed to hospitals, some by helicopter, said San Bernardino County Fire Capt. Mike Huddlestone. A number of drivers were extricated from mangled cars with Jaws of Life devices in the smashups that spanned six miles of freeway.

None of the injured had died late Wednesday night, and authorities were trying to determine the extent of serious injuries.

The chain-reaction accidents, which began about 6 p.m., were caused by an intense storm that battered the area with rain, hail and winds up to 50 mph, Huddlestone said.

“There were a number of ingredients for disaster,” Huddlestone said. “It was rush hour, so there was a heavy flow of traffic. The road was slick because this was the first rain in a while. The storm hit suddenly and hard. A lot of drivers were distracted and reached for their windshield wipers at the same time. And people just didn’t slow down when the rain first came down.”

California Highway Patrol spokesman Richard Perez, who has been an officer in Southern California for 28 years, said this is the largest accident he can recall.

“In the Central Valley, we see large pileups like this caused by the fog,” he said. “But I can’t remember anything like this in Southern California since I’ve been with the department.”

Some drivers said they couldn’t see in front of them when the rain stopped and water vapor began to rise from the road. Others said they were temporarily blinded when the sun appeared and created a tremendous glare off the wet roads.

“I was looking into the sun and I couldn’t see a thing,” said Don Jewett of Fontana, who was driving an 18-wheel truck and managed to pull over to the side of the freeway. “The sun just blinded everything. I slowed down and I saw sparks everywhere . . . then I saw 12 cars piled up in back of a truck. Cars were piled all across the lanes . . . up the embankments and the guardrails. It was crazy. Cars were going everywhere.”

Mercedes Cuevas of San Bernardino was a passenger in a car that was clipped in the side when it was forced to stop on the freeway.

“A lot of people were freaking out . . . running and screaming like they thought their cars were going to blow up,” she said. “They didn’t even wait for traffic to stop. They were already out of their cars and running.”

A number of drivers were caught by surprise when the rain began to fall, Perez said.

“It was one of those fluke storms,” he said. “People just weren’t ready for it.”

After the crashes began, stranded drivers and passengers began calling 911 on their cell phones and overwhelmed law enforcement dispatch centers, Huddlestone said.

“We’re accustomed to responding to an accident here and there--not more than 100 accidents over a six-mile stretch of freeway,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything this big, and I’ve been in this business for 38 years. You can’t really prepare for something of this magnitude. You just do the best you can with the manpower you have.”

Fire departments from about a dozen other cities assisted San Bernardino in the rescue effort and provided backup for stations whose paramedics responded to the accidents.

About 10 separate multi-car collisions took place within moments of each other along the six miles of westbound Interstate 10 between Colton and Fontana, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, Huddlestone said. Some of the collisions, centered between Pepper Avenue in Colton and Etiwanda Avenue in Fontana, involved 25 vehicles apiece.

“It was a number of clusters of accidents rather than one bumper-to-bumper pileup,” Huddlestone said. “It was still a pretty massive chain-reaction accident, though. There were sports utility vehicles, pickups, vans, tractor-trailers . . . you name it.”

The westbound portion of the freeway was clogged for miles and remained closed late Wednesday.

A storm system of this intensity is unusual for late April, said Craig Denny, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

“The Los Angeles Basin didn’t get much of the storm system, but east of the basin there were some thunderstorms, hail and very gusty winds,” he said. “For a storm like this to move this far south is a good indicator of how strong it was.”

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Contributing to this story was Times Community News reporter Karl Schweizer.