El Toro : 22-Ton Load of Pipes Breaks Free, Kills Driver
A 32-year-old Rialto man was killed Friday morning when 22 tons of concrete pipe he was transporting broke loose and crushed the cab of his truck, the California Highway Patrol said.
Curtis Walker Wilhite was stopping for a traffic signal at El Toro Road and Raymond Way when chains holding the five 9,000-pound pipes snapped and they slammed forward into the cab, according to Officer Ken Daily.
It took rescue workers more than 2 1/2 hours to free Wilhite from the wreckage, Daily said, and he was pronounced dead at the scene of the 5:50 a.m. accident.
Daily said preliminary investigation indicated the chains Wilhite had used to restrain the pipes had a maximum capacity of only 16,000 pounds.
Another motorist, Ronald A. Hill, 59, of Lake Elsinore, was in the lane next to Wilhite’s truck and narrowly escaped serious injury when one of the unleashed pipes smashed into the right side of his van.
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