Rain, Slush Blamed For 19 Car Pileup In Banning

Nineteen people were transported to an area hospital on Saturday night after 19 cars collided on an ice and slush-covered Interstate 10.

Riverside County Fire Department spokeswoman Jody Hagemann said first learned about the crashes just after 9 p.m.

Firefighters arrived to find several cars involved in a chain-reaction accident and the roadway covered with ice and slush, blocking all lanes of traffic.

Paramedics transported 19 people from the accident scene, 18 of them suffered minor injuries, one of them was moderate.

It took officers with the California Highway Patrol and local police departments about 90 minutes to get three lanes back open to traffic.

The snow and ice were the result of a powerful Pacific storm that blew into Southern California on Saturday, bringing very cold temperatures with it.

Banning residents saw their temperature drop from 51 degrees early in the day to 43 by evening with more an one inch of precipitation. Much of it was falling as a mixutre of snow and ice, according to the National Weather Service.

Sunday’s forecast for Banning called for more snow and cold temperatures.

CHP officers warned drivers to be especially careful driving in cold, rainy weather as the possibility of ice forming on the roadway increases.