5 Killed in Separate Accidents

Five people were killed and two seriously injured in separate traffic accidents Sunday in northern Los Angeles County, authorities said.

Three people died near Llano about noon when their Honda Accord broadsided a 30-foot camper trailer and overturned at 170th Street and Avenue S, said Karen Faciane, a California Highway Patrol spokeswoman.

Half an hour later, a 1995 Ford Explorer carrying five people overturned after a tire blew on the westbound Foothill Freeway at La Tuna Canyon Road in Tujunga, Faciane said. Two passengers, a man and a woman in their 40s, were pronounced dead at the scene, she said.

A man and woman from Arcadia, both 27, suffered minor injuries and were taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. Their 2-year-old son was unhurt but was taken to the hospital for observation.

Late Sunday, the man and boy were released and the woman was transferred to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Baldwin Park, a Huntington nursing supervisor said.

The CHP is investigating whether the driver of the sport-utility vehicle lost control after the right rear tire blew, Faciane said.

After swerving into the center divider, the vehicle angled back across traffic lanes, flipping over several times, she said.

The westbound lanes of the Foothill Freeway were closed for about three hours while investigators combed through the wreckage, Faciane said. All of the victims were wearing seat belts.

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In the Antelope Valley accident, a 37-year-old Pacoima man and two Littlerock women, ages 70 and 87, were killed when their Accord sped through a stop sign, hit a camper trailer being towed by a pickup truck, then careened into a dirt berm, Faciane said.

The pickup’s occupants, a 53-year man and 50-year-old woman from Lancaster, were unhurt. The trailer came loose from the truck and hit a vehicle driven by a 73-year-old Llano woman.

Neither she nor a 13-year-old passenger were injured, authorities said.