Golden State Freeway Reopens Over Grapevine

All lanes of the Golden State Freeway were opened to traffic near the Los Angeles-Kern County line Friday, nearly 11 hours after a fiery collision involving five vehicles left one woman dead, the California Highway Patrol reported.

The accident at 8:30 p.m. Thursday occurred when the brakes on a double-trailer truck apparently failed and it barreled down the northbound slope of the Grapevine, about 10 miles north of Frazier Park, at about 100 m.p.h., said Officer Mark Ehly.

The truck struck a car and a U-Haul truck before turning over and bursting into flames. The truck’s load of 30,000 pounds of rolled wire spread across all eight lanes of the freeway, striking two southbound cars, Ehly said.

Ehly said witnesses reported seeing the truck come down the slope with flames streaming behind it, apparently from its burning brakes. He said its driver, Antonio Ramos, 22, of San Jose, could not use the northbound freeway escape ramp, which allows runaway trucks to come to a stop by gliding up a steep ramp, because a motor home that had lost its brakes was already there.

Rosalee McIntyre, 42, of Paso Robles was killed when the truck smashed her car, officials said. Ramos and Kathi Randal, 28, of Modesto, a passenger in the U-Haul truck, were treated for serious injuries at Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield.

The drivers of the U-Haul and the cars hit by the debris were not injured, Ehly said.

All lanes of the freeway were closed for an hour, when the CHP began opening the southbound lanes. The northbound lanes remained closed until two were opened about 1 a.m. Friday. The remaining two were opened at 6:45 a.m.