A leak from a tanker carrying 4,500 gallons of hydrogen peroxide shut down all northbound lanes of the 5 Freeway near Castaic on Monday afternoon, backing up traffic for miles on one of the busiest holiday travel days of the year.

The California Highway Patrol shut down the lanes from Parker Road to around Templin Highway, about a mile north of the reported leak. Officers temporarily opened the far left lanes to allow cars stuck between the two points to exit but planned to shut them down again while an L.A. County Fire Department hazmat team investigates the leak and cleans it up, said CHP Officer Stephan Brandt.

Brandt said it appeared that the driver of the tanker reported the leak about 2:30 p.m. Only an estimated five gallons had leaked out, he said, but even that relatively small amount of hydrogen peroxide was enough to close lanes and spark a hazmat investigation.

He said the leak was not caused by any collision and did not require a full evacuation zone, which would have forced the closure of southbound lanes as well.


TV news cameras caught one person skateboarding between the lines of stopped traffic.

The freeway was reopened shortly after 6 p.m. and traffic was beginning to move through the area.

#AIR7HD captured at least one guy making the best of the 5FWY shutdown in #Castaic. HAZMAT- tanker is leaking hydrogen peroxide pic.twitter.com/PcDSgfXjZI — christina heller (@CHellerTVNews) May 27, 2019

teresa.watanabe@latimes.com


Twitter: @TeresaWatanabe