A tractor-trailer hauling an oversized load overturned on the westbound 210 Freeway near Pennsylvania Avenue in La Crescenta, scattering water jugs and boxes across the roadway and trapping a grey Mercedes sedan beneath its trailer. The crash, which involved two semi-trucks, was reported at about 10:52 a.m. Wednesday, and three people were injured and taken to local hospitals.
California Highway Patrol issued a SigAlert for all westbound lanes of the 210 Freeway, a closure that remained in effect until further notice as crews worked to clear the wreckage. According to NBC Los Angeles, the multi-vehicle crash involved a big rig that caught fire, and the cause remains under investigation. Glendale Police and LA County Fire crews managed the scene as the trailer's cargo spilled across multiple lanes, according to Patch.
Three Hospitalized as Trailer Traps Sedan
While initial reports pointed to a single patient transported from the scene, the count grew as emergency crews evaluated everyone involved. The station's report indicates three people in total were hospitalized, and the overturned trailer had pinned the sedan underneath it, a detail that underscores how serious the wreck became once the big rig went over.
With the freeway's main lanes blocked, CHP and Caltrans initially routed traffic through the center median to keep some vehicles moving while crews worked to remove the disabled trucks and clear the spilled cargo, per Patch. A SigAlert, as defined by the California Highway Patrol, covers any unscheduled traffic event that shuts down two or more lanes for at least 30 minutes — a threshold this crash cleared easily given the scale of the cleanup.
A Second Fire Made for a Brutal Freeway Morning
The La Crescenta crash wasn't the only trouble on the 210 that morning. Less than two hours earlier, at approximately 9:10 a.m., a separate big rig caught fire on the westbound 210 near Sunland Boulevard, with flames spreading into nearby hillside brush and triggering its own SigAlert, according to MyNewsLA. The two unrelated incidents effectively choked traffic across the Crescenta Valley for much of the morning, forcing drivers onto local off-ramps as both crash sites were worked simultaneously.
A Recurring Hazard Near the Same Interchange
The stretch of freeway near Pennsylvania Avenue has seen serious truck crashes before. In December 2013, a nearly identical wreck involving two big rigs at the same interchange caused a vehicle fire, a cargo spill, and a full freeway shutdown, as reported by CBS Los Angeles. In August 2020, a head-on wrong-way crash near that same interchange killed two people after a vehicle caught fire, forcing eastbound traffic to be diverted at Pennsylvania Avenue.
The 210 Freeway through the Verdugo Mountains functions as a key commercial truck route linking the Inland Empire to the San Fernando Valley, which helps explain why freight crashes and cargo spills keep disrupting the corridor. Hoodline has covered a fatal crash near Sunland in December that injured nine and killed one, and reported on a September beer-cargo spill and a May lumber-truck rollover in Arcadia, both signs of a pattern of commercial rollovers along this freeway.
The cause of Wednesday's crash remains under investigation, and CHP has not yet released a cleanup timeline for the westbound lanes. Commuters in the Crescenta Valley should expect lingering delays as crews finish clearing debris and the two disabled trucks from the roadway.
