At least 9 drivers missing in deadly US tunnel crash
By CHELSEA J. CARTER (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
October 15, 2007 8:42 PM EDT
SANTA CLARITA, California - Authorities scrambled to find at least nine drivers who apparently escaped from vehicles trapped in a weekend tunnel inferno that killed three people on a key California transportation route.

Thirty-one vehicles were involved in the pileup on Interstate 5, but the California Highway Patrol has accounted for only 23 people, including two men and a 6-year-old boy who were killed as some vehicles were reduced to molten steel.

If all were at the wheel at the time of the crash, excluding the boy, that leaves nine missing drivers. The number could be higher if there were passengers in those vehicles.

Investigators are confident only three people died, but CHP Assistant Chief Warren Stanley said they have no idea what happened to the others who left their vehicles to the flames Friday night.

"We have no idea," Stanley said Monday. "We haven't identified all the vehicles, we haven't identified all the drivers."

The fire spread from vehicle to vehicle after several trucks in the crash burst into flames. Flames shot nearly 100 feet (30 meters) in the air outside the tunnel, and reached temperatures as high as 1,400 degrees (760 degrees Celsius).

Wind blowing through one entrance of the tunnel stoked the fire, said state transportation department district director Doug Failing.

As of Monday, the CHP had received no missing person reports connected to the crash 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Los Angeles. The highway is the main West Coast interstate linking Mexico and Canada.

Authorities said 10 people were hospitalized with minor or moderate injuries from the fiery crash. Another 10 people escaped the flaming, 550-foot long tunnel unscathed.

Investigators were still trying Monday to determine the cause of the pileup, as well as trying to locate drivers, passengers and any witnesses to the accident.

They have determined that 31 vehicles - including big rigs and one passenger vehicle - were involved in the crash 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Los Angeles. The driver of the passenger vehicle is among those who escaped, Stanley said.

Authorities were waiting for dental records to help identify the dead, Los Angeles County Coroner's Lt. Cheryl MacWillie said.

Two of the victims, believed to be a 38-year-old man and a 6-year-old boy, were riding together in a big rig, MacWillie said. Officials previously said the child in the truck was an infant.

The third body is believed to be Ricardo Cibrian, said Espree Campos, a family friend. She said authorities notified the family Saturday they found a body in Cibrian's truck in the tunnel.

Cibrian's wife and Campos' mother left Monday for Tijuana, Mexico, to retrieve his dental records "so they could identify his body," said Campos, 21.

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