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Millions who enjoy living in typically sun-soaked southern California were faced with a rare rainstorm on Thursday, leading to an astronomical amount of traffic accidents on Los Angeles County roads—365, to be exact, all measured during a four-hour period.
Morning rush-hour brought about a slew of wrecks that littered several freeways including I-101, 118, and 134. The stretch from 5 to 9 a.m. local time was even more hellacious than normal, as the California Highway Patrol reports, explaining that the minor to moderate flooding caused the spike in both low- and high-speed wrecks.
“We were all going pretty slow, it was like 10 miles per hour, but I guess he just didn’t see me—he just slammed right into me,” MariAngelica Maurille told local news outlet KTLA after being rear-ended by a Caltrans truck. “It was really shocking at first, but I’m fine.”
Another resident explained that her normally five-minute drive to work took a full hour on Thursday, foreshadowing the extended drive times that others faced in the area.
Both state and county police warned of the dangers involved in driving through such conditions, but mentioned that “(rain) does not cause crashes, how you drive in the (rain) does.”
By 1 p.m. PST, the rain had mostly gone away with the roads also drying up.
With more than 10.16 million people living in L.A. County per a 2017 count, the crash figure is relatively small given the density of the population.
SoCal faces another threat of rain on Saturday as cooling temperatures could bring about a spell of precipitation, but hopefully, drivers have learned from experience and avoid trouble—if not, expect to see another similar report soon on The Drive.
