Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : 2 Injured, Freeway Closed After 3 Big Rigs Collide

A collision involving three big rig trucks on the Golden State Freeway early Thursday injured two drivers, including one suspected of drunk driving, and forced the partial closure of the freeway for almost nine hours.

The accident occurred at 4:05 a.m. on the southbound Golden State Freeway just before Lyons Avenue when a truck traveling about 65 m.p.h. ran into the back of another truck that had stopped because of road construction, said Sgt. Robert Delmese of the California Highway Patrol. A third truck then ran into the first two, Delmese said. The middle truck lost its load of empty boxes, which caught fire, possibly fueled by 60 to 80 gallons of diesel that spilled from the truck, Delmese said.

“If the driver had been trapped in there, he would have been in a lot of trouble. . . . His truck was surrounded by fire,” said a Los Angeles County firefighter at the scene who declined to give his name.

The driver, Martin Lopez, 24, of Dinuba, Calif., was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Santa Clarita with major injuries to his face and moderate injuries to his back and right knee, said CHP Officer Wendy Moore. His truck was badly damaged in the collision and his flatbed trailer was consumed by the fire.

The driver of the third truck, Rogelio Alanis, 28, of Parlier, Calif., was arrested on suspicion of felony drunk driving and may face further charges because he left the accident scene for about three hours, Moore said. Alanis, taken to Henry Mayo with moderate injuries, told officials he left the scene to make phone calls.

The driver of the first truck, Carlos Pinheiro, 38, of Inglewood, was not injured, and the trailer of his vehicle sustained minor damage, Moore added.

CHP officers closed the southbound side of the freeway from 4:20 until 6 a.m. before opening one lane to traffic, directing vehicles into a lane that had been closed by the California Department of Transportation for repairs, Delmese said. All lanes of the freeway were reopened about 1 p.m., although the Lyons Avenue off-ramp remained closed until about 3 p.m.

Commuter traffic on the Golden State Freeway, slow since the Jan. 17 earthquake because of a two-lane detour around a damaged bridge, came to a near halt and was backed up for miles throughout rush hour. Traffic on the Antelope Valley Freeway and other routes leading to the San Fernando Valley was also heavy as motorists tried to avoid the accident.

“When it’s bad, it’s really bad,” remarked Al Maas, a salesman driving on the Golden State Freeway who said he passes through the detour twice a week. “Anything out of the ordinary causes a chain of events around here.”