Holiday getaway is a mess

A big-rig truck crash a couple of miles from LAX closed the southbound 405 Freeway for hours Wednesday, adding to traffic woes and flummoxing travelers on their way out of town for the Thanksgiving weekend.

The accident south of LAX caused major congestion on nearby freeways and roads that extended miles beyond Los Angeles International Airport, adding to the usual pre-holiday traffic headaches.

Although LAX officials reported no passengers missing flights because of the closed freeway, they credited that more to the fact that people were giving themselves plenty of time to get to the airport than to road conditions.

The closure occurred after the big rig hit the center divider and then boomeranged across lanes, overturning on the right shoulder just before 10 a.m. and spilling some of its load -- 55-gallon drums of acetone and rubbing alcohol -- onto the freeway just north of the Rosecrans Avenue offramp.

Five people, including the truck driver, were transported to local hospitals. All had non-life-threatening injuries, said Inspector Steve Ross of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

But the accident and its aftermath closed the freeway for several hours as a hazardous materials crew cleaned up the mess.

As a result, traffic on the 405, surrounding streets and other freeways -- especially those routes to which southbound traffic was diverted -- was exceptionally heavy, said Officer Francisco Villalobos of the California Highway Patrol.

At the peak of the congestion, traffic on the southbound 405 backed up into the Sepulveda Pass, and northbound traffic was slow through the South Bay.

Traffic was worst in the two hours after the accident as motorists streamed onto alternative routes. On the 710 Freeway, traffic in the northbound lanes north of the 405 came to a near-standstill, with 18-wheelers heading away from the ports gridlocked for miles.

The carpool and two left lanes around the accident site had reopened by 4 p.m., and the two remaining lanes were expected to be clear Wednesday evening, CHP Officer Patrick Kimball said.

Traffic problems extended into the Westside. Wilshire Boulevard was jammed at midday, and 25 vehicles were backed up in the left-turn lane on Bundy Drive at Santa Monica Boulevard.

Maria Raptis of the California Department of Transportation said her office reported only a few calls about problems stemming from the accident; most were from people “new in town who didn’t know how to get to the airport.”

Ken Harcrow, assistant general manager of SuperShuttle in Los Angeles, said his company, which had 3,000 reservations for travel to and from the airport Wednesday, had to “add more travel time. But we do that for the holiday anyway.”

Paul Haney, an LAX spokesman, said airport traffic looked “like what you would expect it to look like on Thanksgiving.... Even with the delay, our actual passenger screening times are very good.”

Officials expect 1.8 million travelers to use the airport during the 10-day Thanksgiving travel period.

On Wednesday, security lines didn’t stretch onto airport sidewalks, as they have on past holidays; the longest line required passengers to wait 18 minutes about 6 a.m. in Terminal 4. About noon, lines at security checkpoints were averaging three minutes, according to the federal Transportation Security Administration, which manages screeners who run the checkpoints.

Officials urged travelers to arrive two hours before domestic flights and three hours before international trips. They said those who followed that advice probably made their flights even if they got caught in traffic caused by the 405 shutdown.

The city’s airport agency expects traffic to be heavy at LAX again this morning as passengers head to Northern California, then recede before picking up again Sunday and Monday, when it’s expected to be “very busy.”

Caltrans, meanwhile, warned motorists traveling north on the 5 Freeway to prepare for a closed lane near the Grapevine area at Templin Highway in northwest Los Angeles County. The lane closure is part of roadwork to stabilize the adjacent slope.

The Automobile Club of Southern California estimates that about 80% of holiday travelers will drive to their destinations.

Thanks to a sharp drop in gasoline prices in recent months, motorists should expect to pay about the same at the pump as they did last Thanksgiving: $2.40 to $2.50 a gallon in most areas, according to the Auto Club.

cara.dimassa@latimes.com jennifer.oldham@latimes.com

Times staff writer Jesus Sanchez contributed to this report.