Accidents Close Freeway Nearly 4 Hours

A chain reaction of crashes Sunday--triggered by rubbernecking motorists--left 13 people injured and the northbound Santa Ana Freeway in Irvine closed for nearly four hours while the wreckage was cleared, authorities said.

One person was seriously hurt and 12 others suffered minor injuries in the string of accidents that involved 27 vehicles near the Sand Canyon Avenue onramp, said Capt. Scott Brown, spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority.

“Fortunately, surprisingly, we had no fatalities,” Brown said.

The initial crash was a minor, non-injury accident shortly before noon, said Sgt. Steve Nibarger of the California Highway Patrol. The two motorists involved pulled over to the right side of the highway to exchange information, he said.

But other drivers traveling north were distracted by the sight and slammed into each other, he said. Altogether, a cluster of four to six other accidents happened, leaving vehicles crunched and splayed across the Santa Ana Freeway.

“When people are rubbernecking, looking over at other cars, that’s a distraction,” Nibarger said. “They get involved in another accident and it becomes a chain reaction.”

A light rain was just clearing around noon, but Nibarger said he doesn’t believe slick roads played a primary role.

“The biggest factor was distraction plus the speed they traveled,” he said.

Paramedics transported the injured motorists to five area hospitals. The person who suffered serious injuries was rushed by ambulance to the trauma center at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, and the other 12 were treated for minor injuries and later released.

Traffic was diverted off the Santa Ana Freeway and rerouted onto the San Diego Freeway.

Northbound freeway lanes were not reopened until about 3:30 p.m., CHP officials said.