Brea : 18-Wheeler Hits House, 2 Cars off Freeway Exit

An 18-wheel tractor-trailer with a 40,000-pound cargo of fruit struck two vehicles at the bottom of a freeway ramp andthen crashed into the back of a home in Brea Thursday. The driver of one of the vehicles was seriously injured.

Brea police officials said the truck, driven by Joe Abeday, 36, of Whittier, struck two vehicles on Lambert Road just after coming off the Orange Freeway. The truck then crashed through a fence, knocked out an electrical transformer and plowed through trees and shrubs before coming to rest in an empty bedroom of a home owned by Roger and Sherry Daar on Woodland Avenue.

The Daars said that on three other occasions trucks have run off the road into their backyard.

Police said Abeday’s truck hit a Ford Bronco driven by Robert Shepherd of Whittier and a Toyota Celica driven by Anaheim resident Ronald James Boudreaux. Both vehicles were headed west on Lambert.

Boudreaux suffered facial and body cut and head injuries, according to paramedics at the scene, and was transported to UCI Medical Center. He was listed in fair condition Thursday night. Abeday and Shepherd were unhurt, but Shepherd’s 8-year-old son was treated at Brea Community Hospital for minor abrasions and released, police said.

The truck’s cargo had to be removed and a brace placed on the back part of the house before the rig could be pulled away. Electrical power was interrupted for about 30 minutes for 3,000 customers in the Brea area just after the accident.

Police did not issue any citations, but they said the investigation is continuing.

For the Daars, there was something familiar about it all.

“I heard the breaks screeching and I yelled at my wife, ‘Here we go again,’ because I was familiar with that type of accident,” said Roger Daar. “I walked toward the bedroom to go to look out the back window and at that moment, the truck came through the wall.

“If I had gotten to the window, I would be a hood ornament now.”