Smash-Up on Interstate 5 is a 1976 American made-for-television disaster film directed by John Llewellyn Moxey. Loosely based on the novel Expressway written by Trevor Dudley-Smith under the pseudonym Howard North, the film chronicles the aftermath of a 39-car smash-up in California. The Highway Patrol Office used in the film is California Highway Patrol Office 575 located at 2130 Windsor Avenue, Altadena, California 91001. Plot The film is set on Interstate 5 in California on the date of July 4, 24 hours before the summer vacation will officially commence. From the beginning, California Highway Patrol sergeant Sam Marcum (Robert Conrad) announces in a voice-over that a 39-car smash-up will be the cause of 62 injured people and fourteen deaths. A selection of the people involved are followed up to 48 hours preceding the accident. Other than Sam, who is chasing the murderer of his colleague on the highway, the film focuses on the elderly couple Al and June Pearson (Buddy Ebsen and Harriet Nelson), who are setting out to a beach resort to forget the fact that June is suffering from a terminal disease. Meanwhile, a woman named Erica (Vera Miles) is troubled by a gang of bikers including rebellious Burnsey (Sue Lyon), when she is rescued by young Dale (David Groh). In other sub-plots, Lee Bassett (Scott Jacoby) becomes a murder suspect when he is forced to pick up a young couple on the run, Penny and Pete (Bonnie Ebsen and George O'Hanlon, Jr.). Laureen (Donna Mills), a nurse with feelings for Sam, struggles with doubts of marrying him. Barbara Hutton (Sian Barbara Allen), a young mother, is panicked when she finds her husband Jimmy (Tommy Lee Jones), an officer, shot. All these stories come together when a massive car crash changes their lives for good. 43 hours before the accident, Erica meets with her colleague Trudy (Terry Moore) at a sleazy bar, where she is introduced to a free-spirited life style. She is picked up by a doctor, Danny (Herb Edelman), but leaves the bar without him, despite his attempts to flirt with her. Meanwhile, Penny and Pete rob a gas station, and a gunfight leaves Pete injured, and the gas station owner shot. Seventeen hours later, they steal a car and force the owner, Lee Bassett, to drive under gunpoint. Nearby, Sergeant Marcum holds a truck for speeding, driven by Randy (Barry Hamilton), and issues a warning