GORMAN, Calif. -- More than 70 cars and big-rig trucks collided in heavy fog on Interstate 5 -- leaving two people dead, at least 27 injured and thousands of holiday motorists stranded on the cold and rainy section of highway known as the Grapevine.
A dozen tractor-trailers -- including three that caught fire -- were among the wreckage that forced the closure of southbound I-5 near Frazier Park, Calif., yesterday morning. Only two of the southbound lanes were open by last night and traffic was moving slowly through the area, the California Highway Patrol reported.
Motorists waited in below-freezing temperatures during the day, and continued their vigil as snow began to fall late yesterday evening near the truck stop town of Gorman, 65 miles north of Los Angeles.
For hours after the pileup, northbound traffic crawled through Gorman, past the injured in their cars, firefighters trying to douse stubborn flames and helicopters landing to shuttle victims to five Southern California hospitals.
"It was really bad. Vehicles were strewn everywhere. It was chaotic," said Los Angeles County paramedic Bobby Fullove, who approached the crash site from the air.
"It looked like the biggest Christmas tree in the world had fallen over. There were red lights in every direction," he said.
A trucker died when his rig hit a tanker truck driven by Mavis Hurly of Tulare, Calif. The wife of the fatally injured trucker and two daughters were pulled from the mangled cab by other motorists, firefighters said.
Another woman died en route to a hospital.