San Diego Freeways

A teen-age girl escaped serious injury Friday night when her car was struck by a tire that apparently was thrown from a freeway overpass. The incident, the latest in a streak of crimes in which objects have been thrown from overpasses onto motorists below, occurred near Interstate 805 and California 94 at 10:45 p.m., according to San Diego Police Department spokesman Bill Robinson.

A 28-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of making a hoax bomb threat that led to the shutdown of a San Diego freeway on Thanksgiving. Victor Manuel Diaz remains in San Diego County jail on two felony counts of making threats. Bail is set at $50,000. According to the California Highway Patrol, Diaz made a cellphone call to his sister Thursday afternoon as she was driving northbound on Interstate 15 in San Diego. He told her that a bomb had been placed in her car, the CHP said.

I have always considered California drivers to be the best in the world. At times I have attributed this belief to a kind of Darwinian "survival of the fittest," but my recent experience driving actually added to my respect. My wife and I normally drive the carpool lanes of the Costa Mesa and San Diego freeways from north Orange to south Irvine. I dread those days when I have to travel single and join the masses on the regular lanes. Such a need arose Oct. 30, and my dread changed to absolute despair when I heard the rain pounding on our roof at 6 a.m. My first surprise occurred when I approached the Costa Mesa Freeway at 7:15 a.m. and noticed it was not the can of sardines I had anticipated.

SAN DIEGO -- A Lancaster man was convicted Monday of attempted murder in a shooting rampage along San Diego County freeways in October 2011. Enrique Ayon, 26, was convicted of two counts of attempted murder and individual counts of shooting into an occupied vehicle, vandalism and hit-and-run. He faces a possible life sentence. The San Diego County jury split 11-1 in favor of a third count of attempted murder and 10-2 in favor of a count of discharging a firearm in a grossly negligent manner.

It seems that we in Orange County still live in an age of bigotry, racism and intolerance. I refer to the defacing of two newly placed freeway signs on the Garden Grove and San Diego freeways. The signs announce "Little Saigon Next Exit." Over the past 2 weeks both of these signs have been defaced with spray-painted remarks against the Vietnamese community. The first time it happened, around Feb. 1, Caltrans quickly cleaned the signs. For this, they should be commended. However, I noticed as I drove the freeway today that it has happened again.

The California Department of Transportation expects to spend about $28,000 this year to erase graffiti from signs, walls and art projects along San Diego freeways. Steve Saville, Caltrans spokesman for District 11, which includes Imperial, Riverside and San Diego counties, said Caltrans used to spend $3,000 to $5,000 a year to clean up graffiti in all three counties. Graffiti have gradually increased in the last couple of years, Saville said.

Stepping up its offensive on the traffic snarls plaguing Los Angeles County, the California Highway Patrol on Thursday unveiled an ambitious six-month pilot program designed to alleviate congestion on the most troubled portions of the San Bernardino, Santa Ana and San Diego freeways. Dubbed Operation CLEAR-- for Clearing Lanes Efficiently And Rapidly, the program will use specially trained teams of "congestion relief officers," CHP officers whose sole duty will be to patrol specific sections of the three freeways in search of stalled cars, debris and other traffic impediments.

In their first day of operation Thursday, new car-pool lanes on the San Diego Freeway had an impact, helping to double peak traffic speeds in the morning while increasing the number of cars on the highway's unrestricted lanes, Caltrans officials said Thursday.

Prosecutors in the Randy Steven Kraft murder trial say a paper with 61 entries, found in his car trunk when he was arrested May 14, 1983, is a death list--Kraft's own score card of how many young men he had killed dating back to late 1971. Kraft's attorneys deny it is a death list, and call it meaningless information that will only inflame his jury. Kraft himself, in a 1983 interview, called the list nothing more than references to friends of his and his roommate at the time.

A Granada Hills woman was shot on the San Diego Freeway this weekend as she and her boyfriend drove home from her 20th birthday celebration, police said Saturday. Laura Previde was listed in serious but stable condition Saturday evening at Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Panorama City. Shortly after the shooting, police arrested Temmie Brown, 23, of Gardena at an apartment complex in the 15100 block of Plummer Street in North Hills.

A 24-year-old man is being sought by police in connection with a series of midmorning freeway shootings Monday that left one motorist wounded, two cars and an ambulance with bullet holes, and the California Highway Patrol searching for clues on stretches of Interstates 805 and 5. The CHP on Monday night identified Enrique Ayon as a "person of interest" in the shootings that caused the CHP to shut down stretches of the two freeways in a search for...

A field trip to the La Brea Tar Pits on Saturday morning ended in an emergency triage scene for 124 middle school students when their two school buses collided on the northbound San Diego Freeway on the Westside. Twenty-three Lennox Middle School students were treated for bruises, scratches and pains at local hospitals and were all released to relatives by Saturday afternoon, according to the California Highway Patrol.

San Diego Chargers wide receiver Vincent Jackson was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of drunk driving. Jackson failed sobriety tests shortly after 2 a.m. on State Route 52 in San Diego, a California Highway Patrol officer said. Jackson, whose blood-alcohol level was unknown, was on probation for a previous DUI arrest. The player was taken to the San Diego County Jail and released. Chargers General Manager A.J. Smith said he was aware of Jackson's "off-the-field issue."

Officials on Friday christened the end of a decade-long effort to improve the notorious 405-101 Freeway interchange, but they still have a way to go on a far more ambitious widening of the traffic-choked San Diego Freeway. Earlier this year, Caltrans finally secured nearly $1 billion to widen the 405 Freeway through the Westside and Sepulveda Pass, but the proposal that adds the most lanes has met with strong opposition from residents as well as the Getty Center.

Extending the 57 Freeway down the Santa Ana River to connect with the San Diego Freeway in Fountain Valley is "potentially feasible" but would cost an estimated $2 billion, according to a study released Monday. The concept was first proposed decades ago to help alleviate congestion and complete an eight-mile extension of the 57 Freeway that has gone unfinished since the early 1960s. The proposed four-lane section of freeway would be elevated above the river.

A Westminster woman died early Saturday in a collision on the San Diego Freeway, officials said. Breanna Sisneroz, 21, was pronounced dead shortly after the 2:05 a.m. accident just south of Brookhurst Street.

The San Diego Freeway was closed in both directions at Hawthorne Boulevard in Lawndale late Tuesday because of a collision involving four cars, including a California Highway Patrol car. The CHP said the crash occurred in the southbound lanes at about 10:45 p.m., and the freeway was expected to be closed possibly for more than an hour. Northbound lanes were closed in case a helicopter was needed to transport people to hospitals.

A 24-year-old man is being sought by police in connection with a series of midmorning freeway shootings Monday that left one motorist wounded, two cars and an ambulance with bullet holes, and the California Highway Patrol searching for clues on stretches of Interstates 805 and 5. The CHP on Monday night identified Enrique Ayon as a "person of interest" in the shootings that caused the CHP to shut down stretches of the two freeways in a search for...

A man walking on the San Diego Freeway early Friday was struck and killed by a car just south of Newland Street, authorities said. His name was not released. The accident occurred about 1:15 a.m. when the man was hit in the freeway's northbound lanes. The accident is under investigation, authorities said.