Multi-vehicle crash shuts down Antelope Valley 14 Freeway
17 injured, 2 critically
AGUA DULCE, Calif.—Seventeen people were injured today, two critically, in a multi-vehicle crash involving a big rig on the southbound Antelope Valley (14) Freeway near Agua Dulce.
The chain-reaction collision north of Escondido Canyon Road forced the closure of all southbound lanes and two northbound lanes, according to the California Highway Patrol.
“At about 9:40 this morning, our units were responding to a traffic hazard,” CHP Sgt. Rick Miler told KCAL9 from the crash site. “There was a bunch of pipes in the roadway. We had slowed traffic to clear the lanes. We had traffic stopped behind us, and this big rig that you see came around the corner, was unable to stop in time and started a chain-reaction collision involving 19 vehicles.”
The big rig was being driven by Darwin Martinez, 25, of Los Angeles, according to the CHP.
“Martinez was travelling southbound in the number three lane at an unsafe speed for conditions and failed to avoid stopped traffic,” according to the CHP.
It was not immediately clear if Martinez was cited.
The freeway closure, which caused a miles-long backup, lasted until about 2 p.m., when all freeway lanes were reopened.
The big rig was hauling some type of sand or dirt. At least two of the vehicles involved in the chain-reaction crash ended up on top of other vehicles. Fire officials said at least one motorist had to be extricated from the wreckage.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — In light of a 63-year-old woman being mauled to death by pit bulls in the high desert community of Littlerock, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors today asked staffers today to evaluate a proposed change in the county’s definition of a dangerous dog.
Supervisor Michael Antonovich, who said “four killer pit bulls” attacked Pamela Devitt, called for the change.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — High surf pounded the coast and fierce winds howled across the Southland today, with gusts topping 70 mph whipping the Saugus area and 50 mph in Lancaster.
As the nation slowly emerges from the Great Recession, the economic numbers for the Antelope Valley show a much higher rate of sustained unemployment and devalued housing prices in both Lancaster and Palmdale.
The five-year economic downturn saw much of the area’s the job losses come from the construction industry and retail sales. At the beginning of the year, Lancaster had an unemployment rate of 14.4 percent while Palmdale fared better at 11.1 percent. In 2008 the two cities lost a little fewer than 1,000 jobs combined, according to a 2009 report.
A 2013 bipartisan poll from the Democratic Hart Research firm and the Republican Public Opinion Strategies firm shows that 77 percent of American voters feel immigration reform is good for the United States.
One study, conducted by the Center for the Study of Immigration at the University of Southern California, shows that if the estimated 8.5 million lawful permanent residents became U.S. citizens, their earnings alone over the next decade would generate somewhere between $21 to $45 billion.
After years of planning, followed by delays, lawsuits, recession and a slow economic recovery, the California High Speed Rail Project will at last begin construction this summer. The first major leg will stretch from Madera to Fresno in the Central Valley, and then extend 114 miles south to Bakersfield. A second portion will run from Palmdale, through Victorville and onto Las Vegas, Nev.
