CHP LINKS RUBBERNECKING TO NEWHALL CRASHES.

Byline: Laurence Darmiento Daily News Staff Writer

Can't stop rubbernecking? An inveterate looky-loo perhaps? Here's a tale for you.

Six - that's right, count 'em six - fender benders were reported within five minutes of each other Wednesday afternoon on the Antelope Valley Freeway in Newhall.

While those involved might blame the driving rain, according to the Highway Patrol the real cause was that disease that makes the necks of motorists rival Gumby's.

A Highway Patrol officer had just responded to a collision on the the freeway near Golden Valley Road when passing northbound motorists cresting a hill started rear-ending each other shortly before noon.

"It started to pour all of a sudden, and people started colliding," said CHP Officer Wendy Moore. "Nobody was seriously injured, but there were six individual collisions in the space of five minutes.

"Apparently they were distracted by the (original) collision and patrol car. Part way through this our officer began climbing the hill to get out of the way," she said.

"Big rigs were skidding. He said he didn't know where they were going to go."

The traffic mess took about four hours to completely clean up, and was the worst series of accidents on local roads through the third day of the storm.