WOMAN KILLED IN FREEWAY CRASH.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

ACTON - A 53-year-old Redwood City woman died when the driver of the van in which she was riding apparently fell asleep and let the vehicle hit an Antelope Valley Freeway guardrail, officials said.

The van overturned and caught fire, but the injured occupants were pulled out of the burning vehicle by passers-by, California Highway Patrol officials said.

``The other occupants were rescued or saved by witnesses prior to the vehicle becoming fully engulfed,'' CHP Officer Douglas Kondo said.

The victims were not immediately identified. CHP officials said the van was occupied by two couples in their 50s, one from Redwood City and one from Palmdale.

A 55-year-old Palmdale man was driving the 2001 Chevrolet van north at about 60 mph when he apparently fell asleep about 10:45 p.m. Saturday near Vincent Summit, CHP officials said.

The van hit the guardrail in the median, then overturned, tossing out a woman passenger who had not been wearing a seat belt, officials said. She was killed.

The driver suffered what the CHP described as moderate injuries, as did a 54-year-old Redwood City man. A 54-year-old Palmdale woman suffered major injuries, the CHP said.

All the victims were pulled from the van before they were burned, firefighters said.

It took some time for a fire engine to reach the scene because of traffic congestion and because another crash had happened minutes earlier on the freeway about five miles south at Crown Valley Road, officials said.

In the earlier crash, a vehicle driven by a suspected drunk driver rear-ended a vehicle occupied by two foreign exchange students from Belgium. The Belgians' vehicle was shoved off the side of the freeway, but they escaped with minor injuries, officials said.