Rare So Cal Snow Causes Major Traffic and Accidents

December 18, 2008 (by Otto Smyth)

Car accident lawyers in Los Angeles, California have been buzzing about the unusual Southern California winter storm brought traffic to a standstill on some major freeways and left other slick roads with the snow that fell from Malibu to Palmdale.

The snow that stuck some areas is a rare occurrence leaving approximately 6 inches of snow in Palmdale, 5 in the hills above Malibu and at least 20 inches in Wrightwood, closing all the major routes from Los Angeles.

Interstate 5 and 15 were closed for an amount of time trapping vehicles on the well known truck routes, along with the 14 Freeway. The storm also closed many of the mountain roads and desert highways in the state.

While children were playing in the snow that is so rare in the area, drivers were stuck along side of the freeways, stranded at road side rests and checked into hotels as the highways and freeways were closed due to poor visibility and potentially hazardous driving conditions. Interstate 5 was closed through the night, as well as Interstate 15, roads through the San Gabriel Mountains that connect Los Angeles to the suburbs of Palmdale and Lancaster were also shut down.

According to Francisco Oaxaca a spokesman for Metrolink stated that while the trains were running as much as an hour late due to the snow and poor visibility they honored bus passes for stranded commuters. At the Via Princessa station commuters could be in lines as long as 50 people at the ticket machines.

According to the California Highway Patrol one person was killed north of Los Angeles in the Newhall area at an onramp to State Route 14, they believed the vehicle may have spun out on black ice.

In another incident a person on the ground was killed after a helicopter crash and the pilot injured. The southern California Edison hired a helicopter to string electrical lines between power poles in the area of Bouquet Canyon, while the helicopter was hovering winds made the helicopter spin out of control. The crash injured the pilot and killed another employee on the ground according to the county Fire Inspector Frank Garrido and Southern California Edison spokesman Steve Conroy.