A stretch of the 14 Freeway in the Acton area reopened Friday evening after a wrong-way crash left a big rig engulfed in flames, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The collision, which also involved an SUV, was reported on the northbound side of the 14 near Crown Valley Road just before 2:45 p.m., CHP’s incident log showed.
One of the vehicles was going the wrong way on an on-ramp to the northbound lanes, according to the log, but it was unclear which one.
The semi-truck overturned and caught fire, which spread to some nearby brush in the median between the two sides of the freeway.
The flames were mostly out by the time Sky5 arrived over the scene, which was just before 3:20 p.m. Firefighters were working to extinguish hot spots still burning in the charred, smoldering wreckage of the big rig.
The SUV involved in the collision was on the opposite side of northbound freeway, and the vehicle’s engine appeared to have been knocked out by the force of the crash, video showed.
It’s unclear how many people were injured, but two patients could be seen being loaded onto a Los Angeles County Fire Department life flight that landed on the freeway, according to CHP.
At least one ambulance was at the scene, as were multiple fire and law enforcement vehicles.
A SigAlert was issued shortly before 3 p.m. and the northbound side was shut down at Crown Valley Road. All lanes reopened just before 7 p.m.
Traffic on the freeway was backed up on a day that was already expected to be busy for local freeways as travelers hit the road for the Fourth of July weekend.
