Gusts to 80 M.P.H. Topple 12 Trucks; One Driver Killed
Santa Ana winds roaring across the desert in gusts of up to 80 m.p.h. toppled at least a dozen big rigs in San Bernardino and Riverside counties today, killing one driver when his truck trailer was blown off a freeway interchange in Ontario, the California Highway Patrol reported.
A second truck-trailer, hit by another gust, flopped on its side a few minutes later at the same spot, dangling precariously over the wreckage of the first rig. The driver of the second truck leaped to safety just before it toppled over, according to CHP Officer Weston Taylor. The accidents occurred at the interchange of Interstate Highways 10 and 15.
Taylor said at least two other big rigs were blown over elsewhere in San Bernardino County. In Riverside County, where seven or eight trucks were bowled over, the Pomona Freeway was closed to slab-sided vehicles of all kinds.
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