MARCH 29, 2015
CAJON PASS, CALIFORNIA
A semi-truck crashed heading up the hill Sunday, spilling fuel
and causing multiple freeway lanes to be closed for most of the day. The big-rig crash and fuel spill that
occurred early Sunday, March 29, was expected to keep the northbound lanes of
I-15 jammed through the Cajon Pass until early Monday, Caltrans officials
warned. Cajon Pass is a mountain pass
between the San Bernardino Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern
California in the United States.
“The cleanup is going to take until at least midnight,”
Caltrans spokeswoman Terri Kasinga said at 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
At 3 p.m. Sunday, northbound I-15 – the main road between
Los Angeles and Las Vegas – already had been bottlenecked for eight hours.
Traffic was gridlocked from just below the summit of the pass to the junction
with I-215 in Devore at the base of Cajon Pass, 12 miles south of the accident
site.
And there’s no easy detour, so Kasinga’s advice to motorists
was blunt and simple: Avoid the Cajon Pass until Monday.
“If they don’t have to travel, don’t,” she said. “But if
you’re going to go that way, make sure you have a good-running car and a full
tank of gas, because you’re going to be in it for a couple of hours.”
While not quite glacial, mid-afternoon traffic was
mind-numbingly slow – about 10 mph.
“It’s not moving,” Kasinga conceded.
The wreck was reported at 6:52 a.m. Sunday in the upper
Cajon Pass, about two miles south of Oak Hill Road. The big-rig’s driver
apparently escaped unharmed.
Hauling 20,000 pounds of electronics, the truck tore away
100 feet of guardrail before plunging partway down the mountainside and
rupturing at least one fuel tank.
“The truck ‘rode’ the guardrail for about 300 feet before he
went over the side,” Kasinga said. “The truck is about 200 feet over the side.
He’s extremely lucky he didn’t roll.”
The truck is owned by Fullerton-based Western Regional
Delivery Service, Kasinga said.
For most of the day, the crash closed the two right-hand
lanes, leaving three open.
But at 3 p.m., authorities closed a third lane so a heavy-duty
tow truck could move into position to winch up the stranded truck.
Three lanes were still closed late Sunday.
“And after they recover the rig, there’s another two to four
hours on the cleanup,” Kasinga said of the spilled 50 gallons of diesel fuel, 15
gallons of motor oil and 20 gallons of anti-freeze.