L.A. County freeway crashes more than doubled in the rain, CHP says

Drivers in Los Angeles County lived up to their reputation Tuesday when it came to rain.

Injury accidents on Southern California’s freeways more than doubled Tuesday compared to the same period a week earlier when the roads were dry, the California Highway Patrol said.

Between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. Tuesday there were 172 injury collisions on Los Angeles County’s highways compared to 84 injury crashes in the same period on Nov. 25, said Officer Francisco Villalobos.

But the most severe crashes occurred outside that time frame or in other parts of the region.

In Anaheim, a big rig emblazoned with an American flag on its trailer crashed into the 91 Freeway side rail and dangled over the side. A teenager was killed when a car crashed into a wall in La Palma on Tuesday night and dozens of cars were involved in crashes in the Inland Empire in the afternoon, NBC4 reported.

By nightfall, separate big rig crashes were clogging lanes on the 5 Freeway in Glendale and the 210 Freeway in Pasadena. SigAlerts were flickering on and off on Los Angeles County’s freeways throughout the night and early morning, including a four-lane shut down about 4:30 a.m. in Santa Clarita that lasted nearly an hour.

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