Fatal Crash, 4-Car Pileup On 5 Freeway Brings Traffic To Near Standstill In Sylmar
SYLMAR (CBSLA) — The morning commute out of Santa Clarita was a particularly brutal grind Friday morning due to a fatal crash on the southbound 5 Freeway, and another multi-vehicle crash in the northbound lanes.
A fatal crash was reported at about 5:15 a.m. on the southbound 5 Freeway just north of the 405 Freeway. All lanes were briefly closed, but the carpool lanes and two left lanes were opened for traffic out of the Santa Clarita Valley into Los Angeles to trickle by.
All southbound lanes were reopened at about 7:30 a.m.
Conditions were not much better for the northbound side. About 20 minutes later, CHP says four vehicles became involved in a collision, forcing officers to stop all lanes at the 14 Freeway at about 6 a.m.
The two closures in the 5 Freeway bottleneck into Sylmar caused several miles of backup into Santa Clarita.