Rain to Clear Up for Holiday

Motorists who didn’t try to leave early Friday on their holiday trips should be rewarded with better driving conditions this weekend, as no rain is forecast and skies are expected to clear.

High temperatures in the mid-60s are expected today, and the morning clouds should be gone by evening, said Ray Tanabe of the National Weather Service.

A cold, steady rain in Orange County contributed to a slew of traffic accidents by swamping city streets. In Laguna Hills, a multicar crash on Interstate 5 at El Toro Road caused a 30-minute SigAlert during morning rush hour. To the north in Huntington Beach, an hourlong SigAlert at 9:30 a.m. clogged traffic at Beach Boulevard when a car spun out of control and ejected the driver into the roadway.

An hour later, a motorist going south onInterstate 5 in Dana Point lost control of her car and drove down an embankment. An eight-car accident at Avenida Pico in San Clemente at 2:45 p.m. resulted in yet another SigAlert.

The county’s environmental health division warned people Friday to stay out of the ocean and bays for at least 72 hours, citing pollutants carried by runoff.

Trails at Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park in San Juan Capistrano and General Thomas F. Riley Wilderness Park east of Mission Viejo were closed Friday morning because of wet and muddy conditions.

“We’re starting to get saturated with all the storms,” said Ginny McVicker, senior ranger at Riley. “We’re pretty slippery out here.”

Downtown L.A. received 0.66 of an inch of rain Friday, bringing the season total to 2.55 inches, below the average of 4.21 inches. San Gabriel received the most rain in Los Angeles County with 0.95 of an inch.

The rain was blamed for a Friday morning accident that seriously injured a Los Angeles officer. He was investigating an accident at 8:10 a.m. when a car lost control on rain-slick Sepulveda Boulevard near Mulholland Drive and struck him, authorities said.

The officer, whose name was not released, was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he was in serious but stable condition, said an LAPD spokeswoman.

The unidentified driver was also taken to the hospital but was not seriously injured, police said.

The weekend should bring partly cloudy skies and cool temperatures, forecasters said. Highs will reach the low to mid-60s with lows in the high 30s to low 40s through Monday.