Articles Posted in Truck Accidents

By: A Staff Writer
A fiery collision, which ended with a 15-truck pileup on the Interstate 5 in Santa Clarita Friday killed three people, including two adults and one child and left at least 10 people injured. According to an Associated Press news report, the chain reaction crash, triggered off when two trucks collided, started out in a tunnel near the Antelope Valley Freeway, which serves as a major connector between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Fire officials who described the scene to the wire service, said flames that shot out of the tunnel leaped as high as 60 to 70 feet and snagged traffic on the freeway over the weekend.

Emergency personnel evacuated 20 people out of the tunnel while five trucks were caught inside, the report said. Officials say although the tunnel is a primary route for trucks, passenger cars also travel through it. They were worried that others unable to escape may be trapped in the tunnel, seriously or even fatally injured.

Many who were evacuated reportedly suffered burns, neck and back injuries. The injuries were described as moderate to minor, which was of course very fortunate given the seriousness of the incident. That part of the freeway, about 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles could be shut down for a day or two, officials told the Associated Press.
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The driver of a big-rig was burned badly when his truck crashed into another big rig on the northbound 5 Freeway in Santa Ana Tuesday afternoon. According to a news report in The Orange County Register, the 36-year-old truck driver, who has not yet been identified, was trapped in the burning big-rig.

It took five rescuers to free the man as the blaze got bigger and bigger, the newspaper reported. The burning big-rig was on gear and slowly moving down the freeway even as the rescuers were trying to free the driver and put out the fire using a fire extinguisher, the article said. The driver was taken to the hospital with severe burns to his lower body.

Traffic was reportedly backed up for 10 miles Tuesday afternoon for hours on the northbound lanes. According to California Highway Patrol officers, the truck that caught on fire was carrying leather work gloves.
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Talk about a bad day for big rigs and freeways. Wednesday was one of them! There were three separate incidents involving big rigs on different Los Angeles freeways before noon, one of them fatal, which happened about 6 a.m. when a big rig collided with a tractor trailer on the 210 Freeway. According to a news report in The Los Angeles Times, officials who responded to the scene found both trucks on fire.

One of the truck drivers was pronounced dead on the scene and another was transported to a local hospital with burns. A resident who lives near the freeway and who was interviewed by several media outlets, said he heard a loud explosion when the trucks slammed into one another. The Times article also reports that another big rig was blocking three lanes of traffic on the northbound 405 Freeway close to the 118. Traffic was apparently stalled.

But the incident everyone was talking about Wednesday morning was the “watermelon spill” in Sylmar. A big rig reportedly overturned on the southbound 5 Freeway spilling 50,000 pounds of watermelons on the roadway. Two lanes and an off ramp were closed and traffic was backed up for more than three miles, according to a news report posted on the local CBS Web site. It’s truly a miracle that no one got injured in this accident, given the nature of the spill and the product that was spilled.
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A big rig crash claimed the life of a 5-year-old and injured her mother about 12:45 p.m. Saturday afternoon on Interstate 5 (Santa Ana Freeway) in Cerritos, according to the California Highway Patrol as reported by CBS2 on their website.

Byron A. Vasquez, 26-years-old, was driving a big rig on the Santa Ana (5) Freeway when he swerved the truck from right to left and crashed into the right side of a 2007 Ford Focus that was occupied by Natalie Marrot, 42-years-old, and her daughter, both from Utah. The collision pushed the Ford Focus into the center guardrail, according to the CHP. Vasquez was not arrested.

Natalie Marrott suffered major injuries and was taken to a local hospital. Her daughter, who’s name has yet to be released, died at the scene, according to a CHP officer. According to the Coroner’s office, the child died, even though properly restrained due to the severity of the impact between the big rig and the Ford Focus.
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Blyth, California. Eighteen-wheelers are more common than ants in the summer time on Interstate 10 as they cross back and forth, coming in and leaving California over the Colorado River. Yesterday one of them was involved in a fatal truck accident near the Blyth Airport just after noon.

Authorities reported that three people were killed and two others were injured in a big rig accident involving another vehicle on Interstate 10 at Black Rock Road according to CBS.com. Their names have not yet been released.

Three medical helicopters were brought to the scene of the truck accident according to Riverside County Fire Information Officer Massiel De Guevara and reported on KESQ.com.
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The driver of a big-rig that slammed into a family’s minivan killing three toddlers from Ladera Ranch was apparently speeding on the I-5. According to a report in The Orange County Register, California Highway Patrol officials are recommending vehicular manslaughter charges for the driver of the big-rig, who they say was traveling at a high rate of speed given the traffic conditions that day on the freeway.

The May crash took the lives of three young siblings Katie, Emma and Kyle Coble who were only 2, 4 and 5 years old. The Register article states that the report reveals Jorge Manuel Romero was in violation of the state’s basic speed law, which prohibits drivers from traveling faster than conditions permit. Officials said that this was not Romero’s first violation although it was his first violation that ended in fatalities. He had previously received citations for speeding in a tractor trailer, driving without his lights on and driving with a suspended license, the Register article reports.

A previous investigation by the Register last month revealed that the trucking company, KW Express, itself had 15 safety violations that surfaced during federal and state inspections. Let’s look at some of these violations. Drivers were allowed to work before they completed pre-employment drug screening. Drivers’ time cards were falsified. Vehicle maintenance records were not kept. And a company spokesman was quoted in the newspaper saying it was all a result of “innocent ignorance.” If the Cobles are represented by one of Orange County’s best personal injury attorneys, those violations won’t look so innocent to an Orange County jury.

Does it sound like I have an attitude about this? I do! It is precisely this callous disregard, expressed by KW Express’s spokesman, that I sense is the cause of this fatal truck accident. KW Express allows it’s drivers to pilot big rigs on our highways without drug testing and calls it “innocent ignorance”? Ignorance of the law or giving drivers more time to clean up for drug testing?

Falsified time cards? Does this mean driver’s records were altered to conceal the real amount of time they were driving in excess of federal regulations? Or does it mean that they were shorting their driver’s pay?
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Was the truck illegally parked and that was the cause of this accident? Or was the driver of the Honda Accord at fault? The California Highway Patrol is investigating.

In Corona, California, about 2:00 a.m. this morning on the eastbound shoulder of the Riverside (91) Freeway a 2008 Honda Accord collided with the back of a parked big rig truck, wedging itself beneath the semi truck, according to authorities as reported on the CBS2 website.

The two occupants of the Honda Accord were trapped inside the car, one of them for 75 minutes, before rescuers extradited them from the vehicle according to a Corona Fire Department Battalion Chief. The rescued Honda occupants were not identified. However the chief did say that the male occupant suffered moderate injuries and the female occupant was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
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According to a KCBS news story, an 18-wheel tractor-trailer traveling northbound on 3rd street in San Francisco on July 24, struck and killed a bicyclist as the big rig was making a right turn. Alvaro Aguilera, 39, the bicyclist, was pronounced dead at the Bayview District scene. The big rig and the bicyclist were traveling in the same direction at the time of the accident, about 2:20 p.m., according to Police Sgt. Steve Mannina.

According to Sgt. Mannina, the 45-year-old driver of the 18-wheeler was not arrested or cited. The big rig driver did submit to a voluntary blood test and there has been no determination of fault, according to the Sergeant as reported by KCBS.

Aguilera’s family needs to have their own investigation of this accident done immediately. This doesn’t smell right. They need to hire a trucking accident expert law firm now so that the attorney’s investigators and accident reconstruction experts can gather the evidence before it is altered and then figure this one out. Special attention needs to be given to exactly where and how Aguilera came into contact with the truck and where, exactly, on the roadway the truck was at that very moment of impact.

Every parent knows that losing one child can make you want to crawl up in your bed and not ever get out. What would anyone do if they lost their three children in a freeway truck accident? That pain will likely stay with Chris and Lori Coble of Mission Viejo whose three children — Kyle, 5, Emma, 4, and Katie, 2 – were killed May 4 after a truck loaded with electronic equipment rammed into the family’s minivan on the 5 Freeway.

What do we find out now? According to an investigative news report published by The Orange County Register July 21, federal investigators have found that the trucking company, whose truck was involved in that horrific crash, violated at least 15 safety standards and could be shut down. I think they should be shut down given the serious nature of the violations and the pain they have caused to a dear family and an entire community.

The Register reporter, who obtained this information by filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act, has discovered that the Carson-based K.W. Express allegedly allowed drivers to work before getting results of their pre-employment drug tests; falsified drivers’ hours; failed to come up with a written policy for drug and alcohol abuse; and kept no records for vehicle maintenance or inspection.

Company representatives tell the Register that all deficiencies have been corrected after they had been pointed out and everything’s great! In fact, one spokesman tells the paper that it was an “innocent ignorance of certain requirements.” Innocent ignorance? Are you kidding me? These answers and excuses are and must be completely unacceptable to federal officials. Trucking companies must be made to pay the price for their callous disregard for public safety. Is this the same “innocent ignorance of certain requirements” that contributed to the “innocent ignorance” when one of their trucks crashed into a minivan and killed three children?
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A Mountain View woman is dead after the sport utility vehicle she was driving was struck by flying concrete from a big-rig crash in Redwood City last week, according to an article in the San Mateo County Times.

Indira Gagloeva was air-lifted to Stanford University Medical Center soon after the crash the afternoon of May 19, but was pronounced dead at the hospital. Gagloeva was driving a Lexus SUV Northbound on Highway 101 when a tractor trailer rig going Southbound rammed into the median, sending chunks of concrete flying around the freeway before the rig burst into flames.

The rocks hit Gagloeva’s vehicle as well as the car that was behind her. Maria Villasenior, the driver of that Toyota sedan was not hurt. Gagloeva suffered major head trauma after a piece of concrete went right through the windshield and hit her, according to the article. Her daughter, who was also taken to hospital, suffered minor injuries.

The driver of the big rig was reportedly carrying a load of cardboard and lost control of the vehicle. The driver and his passenger got out safely. A tire from the truck also flew off and hit a building, but no one was reported hurt. The truck company owner Travis Berry told the newspaper that this was the worst accident in his company’s history. Berry said the driver, identified only as Carlos, had worked for the company only for a month. The crash is still under investigation.
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