California Aqueduct

Not far from a billboard that reads "Danger: Deathtrap Highway," a pickup truck swerved off the Pearblossom Highway early Wednesday and sank in the California Aqueduct, killing an unlicensed driver and her three children. Only a 10-year-old girl survived the dawn plunge along a desolate and dangerous stretch of California 138 in the Antelope Valley. She was reported to be in a coma late Wednesday at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. The driver, Marisol Morales, 32, was killed along with Raul Jr.

A sheriff's search-and-rescue team pulled a man's body from the California Aqueduct on Thursday and authorities said the death was being investigated as a possible homicide. The case began as a missing person call in Lancaster at 6 a.m., said Deputy Brian Lendman. The missing man's car had been found next to the aqueduct at 70th Avenue West and N Street. A sheriff's helicopter spotted the body in the water shortly afterward.

Crews are working around the clock to erect two temporary dams on the State Water Project's South Bay Aqueduct to fix a leak that threatens the water supply for 2 million Bay Area residents. State engineers pumped 55 cubic yards of concrete through the aqueduct lining to control the 1,000-gallons-per-minute outflow from the 29-foot-deep leak, state Department of Water Resources spokesman Jeff Cohen said Monday. The leak on the 40-foot-wide, concrete-lined aqueduct was discovered June 5.

A county firefighter who saved a girl trapped in a submerged car at the bottom of the California Aqueduct received his department's Medal of Valor in a ceremony Thursday. Ron McFadden was part of a crew that rescued Shanika Lister, now 11, of Rialto after her mother's car swerved off Route 138 and plunged into about 17 feet of water in a July 4, 1998, accident, said Capt. Brian Jordan of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Workers have begun repairing leaks along the east branch of the California Aqueduct near Palmdale, a project given urgent status by the state Department of Water Resources. The leaks are relatively minor, but can worsen if not fixed, said Ron Lee, supervising engineer for the Department of Water Resources and program manager of the repair project. The department scheduled repairs at this time because it is a low water demand period.

Screenwriter Gary Devore's widow has sued the state Department of Transportation over his 1997 fatal plunge into the California Aqueduct, claiming dangerous conditions on the road led to his death, according to her lawyer. Devore, who authorities said was fatigued and disoriented after driving for 12 hours on his way home to Carpinteria from Santa Fe, N.M., got on the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway headed north in the southbound lanes and accidentally drove off the road and into the aqueduct.

Disoriented from a dozen hours on the road, screenwriter Gary Devore was driving in the wrong direction on the Antelope Valley Freeway before plunging to his death in the California Aqueduct last year, according to the results of a California Highway Patrol investigation released Friday.

Gov. Pete Wilson said Friday that he does not believe a canal around the troubled Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta should be attempted in the next seven years--despite a plea from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Wilson's comments came at a ceremony where he signed a $235-million appropriation bill to make possible a historic water sales agreement between the Imperial Valley and the San Diego County Water Authority.