Rain-Triggered Collisions Snarl Freeway Traffic

Heavy showers pelted the Southland again this morning, harassing commuters with smashups and traffic jams that snarled freeways for hours.

Additional rain was expected during tonight’s rush hour, and forecasters said there should be more again on Tuesday.

A tanker truck overturned on the rain-slicked Golden State Freeway in the Pacoima area at about 5:30 a.m., spilling diesel fuel that blocked the southbound lanes throughout the morning rush hour. A “gawkers’ block” led to a smashup that shut down several of the northbound lanes as well. No injuries were reported.

A loaded school bus spun out on the Santa Monica Freeway at Arlington Avenue, snarling the city’s major artery from the Westside, but again, there were no injuries.

No Injuries in Bus Crashes

The Long Beach and Santa Ana freeways were tied up by two other non-injury bus crashes. One involved an empty school bus that skidded off the Long Beach Freeway at Alondra Avenue; the other a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department bus that was involved in a minor collision on the Santa Ana at Indiana Avenue.

Lesser accidents, most of them triggered by the intermittent rain squalls, slowed traffic on the Foothill, Harbor, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Gabriel River, Riverside and Ventura freeways.

Malibu Canyon Road was closed just south of the tunnel for about an hour when several tons of rocks and dirt tumbled onto the roadway.

Police said two 14-year-old cousins were swept briefly down a flood control culvert in Sunland on Sunday when one fell in while attempting to retrieve a lost hat and the other dived in to help him. The boys clung to a rock a few yards downstream before pulling themselves to safety, officers said. Neither was seriously injured.