BOLINAS -- Heavy rains, pooling water and high winds transformed Bay Area roadways early Wednesday into a treacherous commute that has led to at least one fatal accident and scores of other crashes.

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The California Highway Patrol said that a 23-year-old Stinson Beach man was killed in a solo car crash on Olema-Bolinas Road early Wednesday morning.

CHP Officer Patrick Ensley said the man's name will be released after his next of kin are notified.

The man was driving a 1995 Chrysler Sebring southbound in the area of 6555 Olema-Bolinas Road at an unknown speed when he allowed the vehicle to drift off the west edge of the road, the CHP said.

The driver overcorrected to regain control of the car and left the east edge of the road. The car's passenger side collided with a eucalyptus tree three feet in diameter and the driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

Meanwhile in San Francisco, a big-rig truck that was carrying crushed junked vehicles overturned on southbound Presidio Boulevard at Fulton Street in the Richmond District, forcing the closure of the busy roadway until around 5 a.m. No one was injured in the accident.

Just when that accident was being cleared, the CHP reported that two lanes of eastbound Interstate Highway 80, just east of Sterling Street at the entrance to the lower deck of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, were blocked due to a multi-vehicle accident. The accident occurred at 5:41 a.m. The number or extent of possible injuries was not immediatelyu available as was a time for the roadway to reopen.

The CHP said it had been forced to close southbound Arnold Drive at state Highway 12 in unincorporated Sonoma County due to flooding. Traffic was being diverted to Eighth Street East. Meanwhile, the northbound lanes of Arnold Drive at Leveroni Road in unincorporated Sonoma County was closed for about an hour as the CHP cleared an accident between two big rigs.

Farther to the south, three teenagers were killed when their car veered off a wet road and crashed into a light pole in Orcutt, just south of Santa Maria.

A fourth teen suffered minor injuries in the crash and was standing near the accident scene when Santa Barbara County Fire Department crews arrived.

"When we got on scene, our people assisted the victims and tried to render aid to those that were still alive," said Jan Purkett, a Fire Department spokeswoman. "The one with minor injuries had extricated himself out of the car."

Two victims were pronounced dead at the scene, and a third died later at Marian Medical Center. All three victims were male, and their names were not available.

The vehicle was traveling fast when the driver lost control and crashed into the light pole, authorities said. The car split in two and the post was knocked over.

In Southern California, a commuter van from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory tumbled 200 feet off a mountain road, killing at least three people and trapping others, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.

The van carrying 11 people, including a driver, plunged off Angeles Crest Highway in the Angeles National Forest at about 6:30 a.m. and rolled down the mountainside, Inspector Ron Haralson said.

"One person was able to get out of the van and make his way up to the road" to get help, Haralson said.

Fire inspectors initially said four people had died in the crash, but they lowered the death toll during the rescue operation. Those three were pronounced dead at the scene.

One person was flung from the vehicle. The others were trapped in the van until firefighters arrived. Televised reports showed a badly battered white van lying in the middle of dense forest. Firefighters tore off the doors to reach victims, who were lifted by helicopter to hospitals.

All had injuries, ranging from minor to serious, Haralson said, but he did not have details.

Clouds and fog shrouded the site, at an altitude of about 1,500 feet. It wasn't immediately known if the fog had anything to do with the accident.

Snow dotted some flanks of the mountain but the road itself was clear. Although it is a twisting, two-lane blacktop with steep drops, the road is traveled by hundreds of cars daily.

People living in the Antelope Valley area of the high desert northeast of Los Angeles use it as a commuter road and a shortcut to reach a freeway in Pasadena, said Terrie Trippel, a spokeswoman for the Angeles National Forest.

The commuter van was from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, lab spokesman D.C. Agle said.

JPL is the control center for several NASA projects, including the Mars rovers.