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REGION: I-5 crash ignites fire, snarls traffic
By North County Times | ∞
CAMP PENDLETON ---- A fiery crash on Interstate 5 before dawn Thursday ignited 60,000 pounds of meat, cheese and plastic jugs into a highway barbecue, said California Highway Patrol Officer James Crowe.
The crash occurred just after 5 a.m. on southbound I-5 near Las Pulgas Road, about seven miles north of downtown Oceanside, Crowe said.
A Vons grocery truck broadsided a Mazda van that was idled due to an earlier crash, setting both vehicles on fire, plus all the perishable food in the truck's 53-foot trailer, and sparking a small roadside brush fire, Crowe said.
Thousands of commuters were left stranded for hours in stop-and-go traffic as California Department of Transportation crews worked to clean up the oily, metallic-gray sludge left over by the inferno in the highway's three right lanes.
"It was crazy and some people were frustrated," said 50-year-old Hassan Kany. He left Dana Point at 8 a.m. and didn't get to Oceanside until 1 p.m., a 22-mile journey that turned into a five-hour endurance challenge.
In the slog, he saw four or five cars run out of gas and watched a semitrailer and a tour bus overheat.
The backed-up traffic stretched at least 20 miles to Capistrano Beach in Orange County throughout the morning and into the early afternoon, said Officer Eric Newbury. The highway was closed to all but one of the four lanes all morning, then another lane was opened after noon, he said. All lanes were open by 3 p.m.
Just before the second crash, the Mazda van ran into the back of another semitrailer in the outside lane and the driver was trying to push the van onto the shoulder, Crowe said.
The Vons truck approached in the darkness, apparently not seeing the parked van, which was without lights, Crowe said. The van's driver saw the truck coming and sprinted onto the ridge beside the highway just before impact, Crowe said.
The truck slammed into the van's driver's-side door, setting the van ablaze and hurtling it onto the roadside ridge, which sparked a grass fire, Crowe said. The Vons truck toppled over on its left side before also erupting in flames, turning the meat, cheese and plastic wrappers into an inferno that covered the three right lanes of traffic.
"It smelled like rubber and barbecued chicken," said 27-year-old Trevor Casey of Oceanside. "It was not so appetizing."
An aspiring California Highway Patrol officer, Casey was on his first ride-along with Crowe Thursday morning when the call came. He saw the Vons driver taken by helicopter to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla with chest trauma. He was conscious and expected to be treated and released Thursday, Newbury said.
The van's driver, while not seriously injured, "seemed like he was definitely frozen after what he went through," Casey said.
Highway Patrol officers were asking for the public's help in finding the other semitrailer involved in the first crash. They knew only that it was white, had an enclosed trailer and probably had damage to its back end, Crowe said.
The driver could be charged with a hit-and-run if he or she knew about the crash and left the scene, he said. However, he said the driver may not have even felt the impact and could have driven off unaware.
The Vons truck had been filled with refrigerated supplies for delivery to three stores in San Diego County, said the company's transportation supervisor, Tony Prieto. It had left El Monte, about 75 miles northeast of the crash site, earlier Thursday morning.
It had two 150-gallon tanks of diesel fuel, said Caltrans maintenance supervisor Susan Reilly, which is believed to have sparked the blaze.
Meanwhile, many commuters talked of feeling helpless as the hours passed and meetings and appointments were missed.
"It was frustrating because there was nothing we could do about it," said Jeff Dransfeldt, 24. A recent college journalism graduate, he had just gotten a call for a dream freelance assignment with the Boston Globe to cover an event at 11 a.m. at the Comic-Con convention in downtown San Diego.
He left Camarillo at 5 a.m., expecting to make it to the convention by 8 a.m. He finally arrived just before noon.
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Comic Con not funny wrote on Jul 24, 2008 11:57 AM:Even with all Comic Con traffic north of Oceanside being delayed six hours from getting to San Diego (can you say bathroom break?), Comic Con ticket holders who atually made it to SD are still waiting in line to get in the door (4 HOURS!). Then, once inside, can't move. Do you really want to go? Anyone want to buy my 4 tickets for Sunday Comic Con? What a mess.
K Oside wrote on Jul 24, 2008 12:52 PM:Oh, what a bummer on the Comic Con - they blast it on TV and tell everyone to go - but the city needs to get real and figure out a way to make it work rather than thinking only of the money!!
to comic con wrote on Jul 24, 2008 1:10 PM:Are you serious? There was a dangerous accident and all you can think of is selling your comic con tickets? I hope the person who was rushed to the hospital is ok....and very happy that nobody died.
Bwatty wrote on Jul 24, 2008 1:47 PM:Hey comic con how much are you wanting for one comic con ticket for sunday?
bbq bob wrote on Jul 24, 2008 1:51 PM:Can anyone say BBQ? 60,000 lbs. of meat and a fire. WOO HOO! Who's bringing the potato salad?
Rox wrote on Jul 24, 2008 3:11 PM:I would like to inform them that the traffic IS NOT moving smoothly!!!!!
really wrote on Jul 24, 2008 6:02 PM:i'm glad to see that we have our priorities together, god forbid you miss comic con
wit wrote on Jul 24, 2008 6:04 PM:I passed by the accident around 11 am and with the way it looked i was really happy to hear that nobody was killed
Weigh Master wrote on Jul 25, 2008 5:00 AM:60,000 pounds of meat and plastic? Does that mean the tractor and trailer only weigh in at 20,000 lbs, or did this rig have some extra axles on it?
deb wrote on Jul 25, 2008 7:58 AM:to Vons employee-what a horrible
thing to say.Maybe you should look
for another job-it's obvious from your
comment you are not the kind of person
who should be working for Vons.
On the clock wrote on Jul 25, 2008 8:32 AM:What took 10 hours to clean up the accident? Upright the truck, drag what is left of the vehicles out of the road, and use a tracto to scoop up what is left and dump it in trucks to haul away. The traffic snarl caused by having lanes closed that long was ridiculous.
nancy wrote on Jul 25, 2008 8:38 AM:Driving to Laguna from O'side at 5:30 pm yesterday the southbound traffic was moving at a snails pace. We turned off I-5 at the Beach Cities exit (Dana Point)and it was still backed up. Hard to believe it was all due to an accident that happened around 5 am! Something else must have happend because it was more than just the normal heavy, after-work commuter traffic heading south.
Owen wrote on Jul 25, 2008 8:48 AM:Just a note for all the people who got into the breakdown lane to try and cut past people waiting on the freeway: I hope you have the decency to be ashamed of your boorish selfishness. You showed yourselves to be callous, self-centered jerks to hundreds of people. Thanks to the people I saw (Gentleman in White Lexus and the gentleman in the white van with an amber bubble light) who took it upon themselves to block the people trying to cheat their way past a backup that everyone else had to sit through.
Jim wrote on Jul 25, 2008 10:39 AM:No VONS truck carries 60,000 pounds of freight. That would make it overweight by about 15,000 pounds. I don't believe the truck had two 150-gallon fuel tanks either. That is three times what would be needed to turn a Las Vegas trip, and I think that Las Vegas is as far as they go from the Los Angeles area. Maybe your reporter could have confirmed his "facts" with any of the several hunderd other truck drivers who waited for hours on the freeway.
To On the Clock wrote on Jul 25, 2008 10:43 AM:Normally, I'd agree. I don't see why it takes so long to clean up an accident (not to sound calloused). But, did you see the mess this made? There wasn't enough truck to upright! Nothing but the ribs of a burnt out hulk surrounded by a 60,000 pound grease pool smoldering with burnt plastic and half cremated meat products. Very nasty mess!
Jim wrote on Jul 25, 2008 11:37 AM:No VONS truck carries 60,000 pounds of freight. That would make it overweight by about 15,000 pounds. I don't believe the truck had two 150-gallon fuel tanks either. That is three times what would be needed to turn a Las Vegas trip, and I think that Las Vegas is as far as they go from the Los Angeles area. Maybe your reporter could have confirmed his "facts" with any of the several hunderd other truck drivers who waited for hours on the freeway.
By the way, What is a "plastic jug:? Who buys a plastic jug at VONS?
Why does it wrote on Jul 25, 2008 2:11 PM:take so long to clear the road. The CHP, HazMat and CalTrans walk around in slow motion. Just because they have nothing else to do doesn't mean we don't. Geeze get the lead out and get the road cleared! Should have been 2 hours tops. Push it to the side of the freeway then clean it up.
mile backup wrote on Jul 25, 2008 2:37 PM:I was driving north on I-5 about 2 p.m. and I measured the backup on I-5 at exactly 20 miles with my odometer. For 20 miles nobody was moving. Glad I was heading north. wew!
To On the Clock wrote on Jul 25, 2008 3:13 PM:It appears from your comment that you have absolutely no idea of the mess this made. First of all, it was an accident with serious injuries that requires some on scene investigation. Second, the truck and the hillside were in flames, which required fire crews to put it out. Third, the truck was smashed, burned and leaking fuel which makes it impossible to simply "turn it upright." CalTrans crews had to bring special saws and literally cut the semi into pieces to move it off the roadway.
Instead of criticizing the work crews who tried to move this mess off the freeway, I suggest you give them some credit for doing the unenviable job of moving tons and tons of burned debris of the freeway while angry citizens hurl insults at them.
starfish wrote on Jul 25, 2008 6:18 PM:maybe the whiners could just hurl themselves onto the burning debris instead next time, and put us all out of their misery.
Ted wrote on Jul 27, 2008 7:39 AM:Bravo for the great coverage the NCTimes gave this story. You're the only paper that wrote anything beyond the drivel released by Caltrans and the CHP. The coverage by the LATimes was anemic. Their story said the road was still backed up at 8 am.
I sympathize with the pain of suffering of the injured truck driver, and I hope that everything that could be done was done to help him.
That having been said, I'm angry it took the authorities over 9 hours to clear the road. I was one of those vehicles in the 20 mile backup. 20 miles of cars times four lanes comes to about 14,000 vehicles. That's 14K cars and trucks idleing, polluting the air. It took an extra three hours for us to travel the route from Dana Point to San Diego, and we didn't get on theI I-5 until 1 pm. I assumed they would have cleaned up the mess in 7 hours, and I was wrong.
This stretch of I-5 connects LA/Orange county with San Diego and Mexico. It's heavily traveled, and for all intents and purposes it is a 17 mile long "Bridge" from San Onofre to Oceanside. You can't get off, once you're on it you're essentially stuck. It's a 17 mile long version of the Golden Gate bridge.
Here is my question: If this same accident happened on the Golden Gate bridge, how long would it take for them to clear it? Would it take 9 hours? I don't think so.
Whoever was in charge of this fiasco did an terrible job. I would love to see the incident report with a "tick-tock" log of what happened and when.
My impression is that the janitors at Cal Trans need a serious ass kicking so they will develop a sense of urgency. They need to have a plan to clear I-5 as FAST as possible when something like this happens. This section of highway is unique in it's isolation and heavy traffic.
Once again, I understand that the medevac of the truck driver, the fire that resulted, etc. took priority..at first. But when those where done, there should have been two skip loaders and two or three dump trucks waiting to clear the debris and open I-5 FAST.
14,000 cars. 9 hours. That means that upwards of 30,000 people were affected, maybe more. The cost to business and the public probably ran into millions of dollars.
CHP and Caltrans "screwed the pooch" on this one. Somebody owes over 30,000 people an explanation.
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