Rush-Hour Accidents Snarl San Diego Freeway : Traffic: In one of the four crashes, a car was crushed beneath a gasoline tanker truck. The driver escaped with only minor injuries.

Four separate accidents on the San Diego Freeway, including one in which a tanker truck crushed a car, shut down the southbound lanes for more than an hour Thursday morning, jamming rush-hour traffic throughout the northern San Fernando Valley, the California Highway Patrol reported.

In the most spectacular accident, a car traveling south near Roscoe Boulevard veered out of control about 6 a.m. and struck the front wheels of an empty gasoline tanker truck. The car was dragged under the trailer and was partially crushed beneath the back wheels.

“It was really remarkable, amazing,” CHP Officer Dave Grajeda said. “This car was pretty much smashed with the truck wheels on top of his car, but this guy was able to sit in his vehicle while he was being rescued.”

The driver, David P. Schmidt, 47, of Muskogee, Okla., was conscious during the hourlong rescue and at one point offered to try to crawl out of his Dodge Aries rental car, Sgt. Richard Barton said.

Schmidt received only minor cuts and bruises. He was taken to Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys and was released after treatment.

The accident, which involved two other cars, shut down the southbound lanes from 6 a.m. until 7:15 a.m., backing up both the San Diego and Simi Valley freeways. The drivers in the two other vehicles were not injured.

The three other accidents, all within a mile of the tanker crash, snarled the freeway during the morning rush hour from Victory Boulevard to beyond Roscoe Boulevard. Surface streets were also clogged, the CHP reported.

In one collision, a Los Angeles Unified School District trash truck lost control and overturned when it swerved to avoid slamming into a lane of slow-moving cars, Barton said. The truck driver was not injured.

The other accidents were minor collisions and the drivers were not injured, the CHP said.

“When there is one big crash, everyone is in a hurry to get to work and they are not really paying attention,” Grajeda said. “Everything kind of all fell apart out there this morning. It was a real mess.”