FOUR KILLED IN TWO A.V. CRASHES HIGHWAY 58 SHUT DOWN FOR ONE MILE.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

MOJAVE - Four people died Tuesday in two crashes less than a mile apart on Highway 58, officials said.

Two people died when a pickup truck overturned on the highway, then 90 minutes later two more people died when a second pickup truck slammed into the rear of a big rig while trying to pass traffic slowed by the first crash.

``Both of the causes of the crashes are still being investigated,'' said California Highway Patrol Officer Chuck McGuire. ``It's a real mess.''

Killed in the first crash were people heading from Las Vegas to the San Francisco Bay Area for Christmas, officials said. The victims of the second crash were not immediately identified.

Three people survived the first crash with injuries, and one person survived the second crash.

A one-mile stretch of Highway 58 was closed while CHP officials investigated both crashes.

The crashes occurred on the newly opened Highway 58 bypass around Mojave. The first crash occurred at 9:30 a.m. when a westbound Ford pickup truck occupied by five people drifted onto the highway shoulder, then went out of control when the driver steered back onto the pavement.

The Ford veered across both westbound lanes and into the dirt center divider, where it rolled several times. It tossed out three people and came to rest in the eastbound lanes.

When rescue crews arrived, they found one person was already dead. A second was flown by helicopter to Kern Medical Center and pronounced dead there.

A third was rushed to Antelope Valley Hospital with what were described as moderate injuries. Two people who were not thrown from the truck were taken to Antelope Valley Hospital with minor to moderate injuries.

Fire crews had to cut the driver's door from the Ford to extract the driver because the vehicle's roof was crushed.

While rescue crews were working on the first crash, a Chevrolet pickup truck slammed into the rear of a big rig stopped in a traffic jam nearly five miles long in the eastbound lanes.

Rescue crews rushed to the second crash to aid the victims.

The Chevrolet pickup had tried to pass backed-up eastbound traffic by driving on the shoulder. The truck was racing past slow-moving vehicles when the driver tried to pull back into the lanes and realized that traffic had stopped.

The truck skidded into the rear of a stopped tractor trailer, killing the driver and the front passenger instantly. A passenger in the rear seat suffered moderate injuries and was airlifted to Kern Medical Center.

``While passing everybody he (the Chevy driver) realized that everyone had stopped,'' McGuire said. ``He locked up his brakes and went underneath the trailer of the truck.''

It took rescue crews nearly two hours to cut the last body from the Chevrolet's wreckage.

The Chevrolet left skid marks nearly 300 feet before the crash.

The big rig's driver, his mother and two children, who were in the truck cab, were not injured in the crash.

Greg Botonis, [phone]

gregory.botonis(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color in AV edition only) Kern County firefighters work Tuesday on the second deadly crash in 90 minutes on Highway 58. Four people were killed in the two crashes, which occurred about a mile apart.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer