Light Rain the Culprit in 142 Traffic Collisions in the San Gabriel Valley This Morning

Light rain over the San Gabriel Valley area Monday morning caused 142 fender benders on freeways from 2 to 6 a.m., highway patrol officials said.

Though the combination of light showers and drizzle will only amount to about a tenth of an inch of water covering the roadways, light rain can make roads dangerously slick, giving drivers a need to reduce speeds and avoid tailgating, according to Kathy Hoxie, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“Typically, when we see rain like this, you’ll see some oil in the roadways,” said Lisa Derderian, spokesperson for the Pasadena Fire Department. “So yeah, we typically do see traffic accidents out there.”

No fatalities were reported out of the 142 accidents, said to Officer Monica Posada of the Altadena Highway Patrol.

To keep safe on wet roadways, Derderian recommends motorists slow down, leave earlier to allow enough time to reach their destinations and brake sooner than they typically would.

“[We] want to urge people to go slow and allow plenty of time throughout the day,” Derderian said.

A wind advisory expecting gusts upwards of at least 35 miles per hour until 11 a.m. was in effect for the San Gabriel, Santa Monica Mountains and Antelope Valley but was cancelled before dawn, according to the National Weather Service.