At Least Two Dead In Tunnel Crash
Firefighters have recovered two bodies so far after a fiery crash in a California highway tunnel. This is one ugly accident.
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. - A crash in a Southern California freeway tunnel quickly turned into a fiery, chain-reaction pileup that mangled several trucks, killed at least two people and shut down the key north-south route as the wreckage burned for hours.
Firefighters began hauling the mangled, blackened debris of more than a dozen big-rig trucks out of the tunnel Saturday afternoon. The crash late Friday involved at least 15 trucks and possibly one or more passenger cars, and sent people fleeing for their lives. At least 10 people were injured.
"It looked like a bomb went off," said Los Angeles County firefighter Scott Clark, one of about 300 firefighters who battled the blaze throughout the night.
California Highway Patrol Officer David Porter confirmed Saturday that the bodies of two crash victims had been found in the tunnel. He couldn't immediately say whether one was a trucker who had been listed as unaccounted for.
The fire raged for quite some time and there is what sounds like quite a bit of damage to the tunnel itself. Chunks of concrete have fallen inside the tunnel - it is not known how bad the damage is at this time.
By Laurence F. Sheldon, Jr., Saturday, 13 October , 2007 @ 6:48 pm
Why were there passenger cars in there? I have not driven that route since that particular tunnel was built apparently, but all the other “trucks only” lanes in that area used to be “trucks only”–no reason for cars to ever be there.
Yes, I know BCBlvd is east of me, but maybe somebody else knows.
By Gaius, Saturday, 13 October , 2007 @ 6:51 pm
An earlier article mentioned that cars sometimes did use the trucks only tunnel, so they were not sure what was in there.