Eight Hospitalized as Dense Fog Leads to Chain-Reaction Crashes

Fourteen traffic accidents occurred in dense fog on Interstate 215 near the Riverside County town of Perris on Wednesday morning, causing moderate injuries to eight people, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Altogether, 43 cars and trucks were involved in the accidents in a half-hour period beginning at 7:53 a.m., said CHP spokesman Dennis Welch in Riverside.

Welch said the southbound lanes of the highway were closed for more than two hours beginning at 8:30 a.m., and the northbound lanes were closed briefly for cleanup of concrete debris. The accidents took place in the southbound lanes.

“The cause of all these accidents was pockets of dense fog, coming in and out, over the highway,” Welch said. “Most of these drivers were going too fast for the conditions, and when one crash occurred, others plowed in, and the situation escalated.”

The most seriously injured were two women, who were involved in the initial accident that started the chain reaction, said CHP Officer Richard Thurston of Temecula.

He identified them as Esther Patterson, 55, and Bertha Gonzalez, 30, both of Perris.

Thurston said Patterson was traveling about 70 mph, when she stepped on her brakes so hard that the car spun out of control and turned in the opposite direction, where it was struck by a car driven by Gonzalez.

Both cars then bounced into a third vehicle, whose driver, Felix Pina, 44, of Moreno Valley, was only slightly hurt.

But further accidents took place as more cars arrived. Eight people were hospitalized.