Inland Valley

ONTARIO >> Traffic was backed up for about seven miles following a multi-vehicle crash that also involved a tractor trailer tossed debris across all lanes of the westbound 10 Freeway near Etiwanda Avenue early this morning.

Traffic was reportedly backed up to Bloomington. A SigAlert was issued as crews worked to clear the scene and the lanes of traffic.

The crash was reported just before 6 a.m., according to California Highway Patrol incident logs.

At least three vehicles, including the tractor trailer were involved, and the crash initially blocked all lanes due to debris being strewn across the freeway, according to CHP logs.

SAN BERNARDINO >> A sheriff’s sergeant helped save a man’s life when the driver became trapped inside his burning car after a crash early Tuesday morning.

San Bernardino County sheriff’s central station Sgt. Fred Parrish was on his way to a call in Devore around 3 a.m. when he spotted a crash on the northbound 215 Freeway near Kendall Avenue, according to a statement.

It appeared a passenger car had collided with a dirt hauler causing a fire to ignite in the car’s engine compartment, officials said.

The driver, and sole occupant of the passenger car was pinned under the dashboard and was drifting in and out of consciousness, according to a sheriff’s statement.

Parrish used his patrol car’s fire extinguisher to put the fire out. He also created an airway into the cab allowing the victim fresh air, officials said.

Fire personnel had to use the jaws of life to pull the man from the wreckage. The man was taken to a hospital but his condition is unknown.

The crash is under investigation.

CAJON PASS >> A semi-truck crashed heading up the hill Sunday, spilling fuel and causing multiple freeway lanes to be closed for most of the day.

The crash happened just before 7 a.m. on the northbound 15 Freeway about two miles south of Oak Hill Road, according to California Highway Patrol dispatch logs. Officials at the CHP’s Victorville office could not be reached by phone.

The big rig, carrying 20,000 pounds of electronics, rolled down the side of the freeway and spilt about 150 gallons of fuel, according to the CHP logs.

A San Bernardino County Fire Department dispatch supervisor said the truck driver escaped serious injury.

The CHP laid cones, closing the three right lanes of the five-lane freeway, according to the agency’s logs, as a hazmat crew attempted to clean the fuel spill and tow-truck drivers rescued the semi.

The lanes were expected to be closed until midnight.

The USC film student in a Hyundai that was struck by a Metro Expo Line train near campus Saturday after he turned his vehicle onto the tracks remained in critical condition Sunday morning while the train’s operator was released from the hospital Saturday, authorities said.

Full service was restored on the Expo Line tracks Sunday morning.

The collision occurred at the intersection of Exposition Boulevard and USC Watt Way shortly before 11 a.m. Saturday, police said. The three-car Metro Expo Line train was traveling eastbound when the 2013 Hyundai Sonata, traveling in the same direction, made a left turn at USC Watt Way and was hit by the train, said Sgt. N. Vargas of Los Angeles Police Department’s South Traffic Division.

The crash derailed the first two cars of the light-rail train and destroyed the silver Hyundai. The train, knocked slightly off its tracks, managed to stay upright.

The film student, who Vargas said was about 31 years old, had to be extricated from the Hyundai he was driving and was clinging to life when he was taken to the hospital, authorities said. A total of 21 people were treated for injuries, including 10 that were taken to area hospitals. Of those 10, eight were commuters on the train that sustained minor injuries, authorities said.

The train’s operator, who sustained serious injuries and was identified as Kenneth Goss, was treated at the hospital Saturday and released.

“He was home last night with his family — a little shaken up but he was home,” said Jose Ubaldo, a Metro spokesman.

Metro supervisor Diljiat Sandhu said it looked like the car’s driver was trying to turn left at a grade crossing and didn’t see the approaching train.

The train, which collided with the car at a traffic signal between USC and the Museum of Natural History, was removed overnight and taken to Metro’s Long Beach yard, Ubaldo said. Full service on both tracks of the Expo line was restored after 5 a.m. Sunday, he said.

LAPD’s South Traffic Division is investigating the incident with help from other LAPD officials, the L.A. Sheriff’s Department, University of Southern California Department of Public Safety and Metro, police said in a statement.

Metro was also conducting its own investigation into the incident as is standard procedure, Ubaldo said.

City News Service and the AP contributed to this report.

VATICAN CITY >> Pope Francis opened solemn Holy Week services with Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, stressing humility and remembering the dead in the Germanwings crash.

At the end of Mass outside St. Peter’s Basilica for some 70,000 faithful, Francis prayed for those who died in Tuesday’s crash in the French Alps, noting there was a group of German schoolchildren aboard the aircraft. The disaster killed 150 people, including the co-pilot who investigators say deliberately slammed the plane into the mountain.

Francis clutched a palm frond during the traditional procession at the service’s start. In keeping with the simple tone of his two-year-old papacy, Francis leaned on a plain wooden pastoral staff instead of a traditionally more ornate one as he stood under a red canopy on the basilica steps.

He wore bright red vestments to recall Jesus’ death by crucifixion. In his homily, Francis stressed humility, another quality that has marked his papal style.

He hailed those who quietly ignore their own needs to serve others, and paid tribute to Christians who endure with dignity humiliation, discrimination and even persecution for their faith.

Many of the faithful, holding olive branches as symbols of peace, are among pilgrims who have poured into Rome for Holy Week appearances by Francis.

On Friday evening, the pope will preside over a Way of the Cross service at the Colosseum. On Easter Sunday he will celebrate mid-morning Mass in St. Peter’s Square, and then give a blessing from the basilica’s central balcony.

LOS ANGELES >> A three-car Metro Expo Line train smashed into a car turning onto the tracks Saturday in front of the University of Southern California, seriously injuring the operator and leaving the driver of the car close to death. Nineteen passengers escaped with minor injuries.

The eastbound train slammed into the car just before 11 a.m. when the driver tried to make a left turn across the tracks running down the middle of Exposition Boulevard, police said.

The crash derailed the first two cars of the light-rail train and obliterated the silver Hyundai. The train, knocked slightly off its tracks, somehow managed to stay upright.

“We had to use the Jaws of Life to extricate the driver, and we transported him to a local hospital,” Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Daniel Curry said at the scene. “He was in extremely critical condition.”

Neither the operator of the train nor the driver of the car have been publicly identified.

Throughout the morning, Los Angeles firefighters attended to the stream of passengers filing off the stricken train. Of the 19 to suffer mostly cuts and bruises, eight were taken to nearby hospitals.

“They are still triaging patients from the train; it’s still uncertain the condition of the driver of the car,” said Ramon Montenegro, a spokesman for the sheriff’s Transport Policing Division, early in the day.

Metro spokesman Jose Ubaldo said the car and train were heading east, with the train running down the center of Exposition Boulevard when the car swung a left turn toward a USC side street that dead-ends into a campus parking lot. It was struck by the nose of the train.

The train hit the car at a traffic signal between USC and the Museum of Natural History at 934 Exposition Blvd., where it was knocked slightly off its tracks near Vermont Avenue, according to witnesses.

Metro supervisor Diljiat Sandhu said it looked like the car’s driver was trying to turn left at a grade crossing and didn’t see the approaching train. What was left of the vehicle was still partly wedged onto the tracks Saturday afternoon.

Drivers attempting to make such left turns are normally regulated by a left-turn arrow and flashing alarms for approaching trains, which encounter signals to stop if cars turn across the grade crossing.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the signals flashed before the crash.

After the collision, a photo shot from a USC office building across the street and posted on the Internet showed a crushed car on the westbound tracks at the Watt Drive signal. The eastbound train rested on the tracks linking Culver City to downtown Los Angeles.

Metro cars are designed to be pulled or pushed from the front or back. The wrecked train was being pulled, officials said, with the train operator perched in the front of the leading car.

Expo Line service in both directions was cut, and firefighters were warned about a half-hour after the crash that the train line’s overhead power supply could not be immediately cut off. The train’s electric arms had been retracted, but firefighters were warned that low voltage batteries might still be a hazard.

Police shut down several blocks of Exposition Boulevard while the Metro crews worked to remove the train.

While service through the area was suspended, Sandhu said the transit agency formerly known as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was providing shuttle buses to get riders around the wreck. A “bus bridge” was set up to ferry Expo Line passengers between the Expo/23rd stop and the Expo/Vermont station, Montenegro said.

Metro spokesman Ubaldo said the agency was working to restore rail service by Saturday evening. That’s when an estimated 90,000 people were expected to fill the stands of the nearby Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to watch a sold-out soccer game.

The train was back up and running by 3:30 p.m. up to the Exposition Park station, according to news reports. The full line was to reopen by 8 p.m.

City News Service and the Associated Press contributed to this report

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. >> Derryl Cousins, a major league umpire from 1979 to 2012 and an alumnus of El Segundo High School and El Camino College, was recently arrested for drunk driving here.

According to the written police report, Cousins was pulled over by Scottsdale Police Officer Kevin Reynolds on March 18 at 2:22 a.m. He was driving about 10 mph below the posted speed limit at the time, drifting over a lane divider on eastbound Indian School Road in downtown Scottsdale.

Cousins, 68, hadn’t been driving long. He claimed to have had “about four drinks” at Karsen’s Grill, only a few blocks from the site of the arrest.

Cousins was given a handheld portable breath test prior to being arrested and booked on suspicion of driving under the influence. His blood alcohol count registered a .220.

According to Reynolds’ report, Cousins was polite throughout the process.

“I’m a law-abiding citizen, I’ve just been drinking too much,” he said, according to the report.

At the booking station, Cousins was given two more breath tests on an Intoxilyzer 8000 machine. His blood-alcohol count registered a .223 and .231, high enough to be charged with a misdemeanor for “Extreme DUI” under Arizona state law.

Cousins was released when he paid $2,000 bail. According to Sgt. Ben Hoster, the public information supervisor for the City of Scottsdale, Cousins will be assigned a future date in court.

Cousins currently lives in Las Vegas according to the booking report.

UPLAND >> At least three people, including two pregnant women, were injured in a multi-vehicle crash involving a jack-knifed tractor trailer on the eastbound 10 Freeway at Mountain Avenue Wednesday morning, according to the California Highway Patrol.

• Video: Big rig crash backs up traffic for miles

The crash was reported just after 7:30 a.m. prompting authorities to issue a SigAlert for the area, according to the CHP incident log. Traffic was backed up for miles on both sides of the freeway.

• PHOTOS: 3 injured in Montclair crash

Several paramedic units were requested for injured motorists, however it appeared most of the injuries were minor.

All but one lane of the freeway, including the carpool lane, were blocked for about two hours as CHP officers and rescue personnel tended to the crash. There were reports drivers were using the right-hand emergency lane to get around the large collision.

Traffic was backed up to Fairplex in Pomona as well as to the Ontario area on the westbound lanes of the freeway.

WASHINGTON >> The Associated Press has learned that two Americans presumed to have died in the plane crash in the southern French Alps include a U.S. government contractor and her daughter.

The mother was identified as Yvonne Selke of Nokesville, Virginia, a longtime and highly regarded employee of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. in Washington, and her grown daughter, whose name was not immediately available. Selke worked with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s satellite mapping office, according to a person close to the family. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to release information to reporters.

A person who answered the phone at Selke’s home said the family was not providing any information.

A Booz Allen spokeswoman declined to comment, noting that Germanwings had not yet disclosed identities of the crash victims.