Fatal crash involving big-rig, several cars on northbound Highway 17

A fatal crash involving 10 cars and a big rig shut down much Highway 17 in the Santa Cruz Mountains Thursday morning for hours.

Both northbound lanes and one southbound lane were closed between Summit and Bear Creek Roads, near the Santa Cruz County/Santa Clara County border, for much of the morning and early afternoon. All lanes were back open before 6 p.m.

According to CBS affiliate KPIX, the California Highway Patrol called it a “very graphic, horrific scene …. like a war zone,” after at least eight were people injured and one person was killed in a crash that left wreckage strewn across an eighth of a mile.

CHP said the driver of a big rig pulling a double load of sand lost control while going northbound on Highway 17 causing a chain reaction crash before jumping the guardrail and ending up on Old Santa Cruz Highway frontage road.

Three of the vehicles were damaged so badly that they trapped people inside.

Scotts Valley police reported that northbound 17 had been reopened as of around noon but CHP was escorting cars over at the summit in the southbound lane. Southbound Highway 17 is open to one lane of traffic coming into Santa Cruz County.

Motorists are urged to use caution when traveling congested roads.

This story will be updated.