rain\u00a0<\/a>drenched the Sacramento area on Monday morning, creating ponding, low visibility and a string of crashes during the holiday commute.<\/p>\nWhile many people were able to skip the morning drive because of the holiday, those who did head out faced steady downpours and slick roads.<\/p>\n
On a soaked stretch of Interstate 5 near Florin Road, Tyler Ortiz Gelder found himself in the middle of a chain-reaction crash.<\/p>\n
“I just got smacked by a Tesla who smacked another car who hit me and I jack-knifed and now, we’re on the side of the road in the rain,” said Ortiz Gelder.<\/p>\n
Ortiz Gelder believes the relentless rain played a role in the collision at Interstate 5 and Florin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The crash was one of two in the area around the same time, involving a total of five cars. In one of those crashes, the California Highway Patrol reported minor injuries.<\/p>\n
“Now, I’ve got to figure out how I’m going to pay my bills and keep working because now I’m out of a truck,” said Ortiz Gelder, who relies on his car for his small business. “Could’ve been a lot worse.”<\/p>\n
Around 6 a.m., the CHP reported weather-related crashes with no injuries on Highway 50 in downtown Sacramento and Interstate 5 at the Cosumnes River.<\/p>\n
Earlier, around 4 a.m., two people were injured in a crash on westbound Business 80 at Auburn Boulevard. Caltrans crews were seen clearing a backed-up drain in the area.<\/p>\n
For some drivers, staying alert made all the difference.<\/p>\n
“Keep your eyes wide open and awake…” said Thy Nguyen, who drove from his Bay Area home to visit family in Sacramento.<\/p>\n
“The rain was strong most of the time. Actually, it only calmed down for maybe seven or eight minutes, and the rest of the two hours was strong… but zero traffic,” Nguyen said.<\/p>\n
Even with lighter traffic, the steady rain made for a tense morning. After the crashes and close calls, some drivers said they were simply grateful everyone walked away safely.<\/p>\n
“Glory to God. Listen, the truck is messed up, the cars are messed up but everybody’s OK… it could have been worse,” Ortiz Gelder said.<\/p>\n
Watch more from ABC10: Pollock Pines prepares for intense winter snow<\/a><\/p>\n ABC10: Watch, Download, Read<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roadway ponding and downpours that limited visibility marked the holiday morning commute in the valley. SACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-180420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-sacramento","9":"tag-sacramento-headlines","10":"tag-sacramento-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}