Crash causes massive I-5 jam

A big-rig crash ignited a brush fire Thursday morning and shut down all but one lane of southbound Interstate 5 near Camp Pendleton.

For much of the day, southbound traffic was backed up for about 20 miles, into Orange County, as a tow truck and Caltrans workers tried to clear the wreckage, California Highway Patrol Officer Larry Landeros said.

The semi-truck overturned about 5 a.m. about a mile south of the Las Pulgas Road exit after hitting a sport-utility vehicle that had been disabled in an earlier crash with another car, Sanchez said.

The SUV driver escaped before the big rig struck his car and was not injured, Sanchez said.

The big-rig’s driver suffered major chest injuries but was conscious at the scene before being taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla.

Three southbound lanes of the freeway remained blocked at 8 a.m., and traffic was delayed for miles in the open lane, Sanchez said.

“It’s creating such a huge bottleneck,” he said.

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molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com