Trucker Accused of Knocking Auto Off Freeway on Purpose

The driver of a tractor-trailer hauling highly flammable propane was arrested in San Juan Capistrano Monday on suspicion of intentionally ramming and forcing a car off Interstate 5 and down an embankment.

The compact car, traveling at an estimated 55 m.p.h., rolled over two or three times and was badly damaged, but the two women inside escaped serious injury because they were belted to their seats, a California Highway Patrol spokeswoman said.

“He didn’t do anything to stop,” said the driver of the car, Maria Trinidad Sanders, 39, of San Juan Capistrano. “He was just right on my bumper. I sped up to get away from him, but he was right there. And then I tried to move to the shoulder . . . and as I moved to the shoulder, he hit me” for a second time.

“We were very close to the bridge (over Junipero Serra Road),” Sanders said. “If this happened 100 yards ahead, we’d go off the bridge, and it would be a different story. Instead, we went into wet sand and ivy.”

After Sanders’ car plunged over the side of the freeway, the truck driver, identified by the CHP as Francisco Javier Nevarez, 40, of Tijuana, drove on until witnesses flagged him down a considerable distance north of the collision, officers said. Witnesses were quoted as saying that it did not appear that Nevarez intended to stop.

Says He Was Unaware

Nevarez said he was unaware of being involved in any collision and only stopped when a fellow trucker informed him of the collision via citizens band radio, officers said.

CHP officers, fearing that the huge tank on the trailer might be leaking explosive propane, prepared to shut down the entire freeway during the morning commuter rush. No significant leak was found, however, and a closure was not ordered.

Nevarez was arrested by Orange County sheriff’s deputies on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, and CHP officers said they would seek a charge of felony hit-and-run driving against him.

The CHP said that Nevarez has an ordinary California driver license but not one to drive large trucks. The Department of Motor Vehicles said Nevarez received his license last Dec. 23 and has had a clean driving record since then.

Officers said they knew of no reason for the alleged attack on Sanders’ car.

Sanders said that she and a co-worker, Elisa Gomez, 29, of San Juan Capistrano, never saw the truck driver himself and had no idea why he might have rammed their car.

Truck Was Beside Her

Sanders said she drove onto the outside northbound freeway lane from Ortega Highway about 6:25 a.m., adding that the large tanker was beside her, in the next lane.

She said she held her speed at about 55 m.p.h. and waited for the truck to pull ahead of her. “I don’t like to drive in front of trucks,” she said. “They’re always in a hurry and try to push you. . . . I was waiting for him to go ahead, and then I’d go into the next lane.”

Sanders said the next thing she knew she was rammed from behind “pretty hard” and saw the truck in her rear-view mirror.

“He hit me and pushed my car. But I didn’t lose control the first time. Then I looked in the mirror, and my friend looked, and she said, ‘Oh my God, he’s going to hit us again!’ ”

Sanders said she sped up, trying to leave the truck behind. “But he was right there on my bumper--I mean right there. . . . He didn’t do anything to slow down or anything.”

She said she tried to escape to the freeway shoulder but was struck again from behind and sent rolling down the embankment.

The car landed right side up, and both women got out of the car quickly, fearing that a fire might erupt, Sanders said. Both women were taken to Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo, where they were treated and released.

Claims a Back Injury

Sanders said X-rays disclosed several compressed vertebrae in the middle of her back. She said that they are very painful but that doctors say they will heal themselves. “They told me I will be laid up at least three weeks,” she said.

The tractor-trailer Nevarez was driving is licensed in Texas, and markings indicate that it is owned by Hidro Gas Juarez of Juarez, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso.

A CHP spokeswoman said a second Hidro Gas Juarez tanker was following Nevarez’s on the freeway. Its driver told officers that it appeared that Sanders’ car, while trying to enter the freeway, had clipped Nevarez’s trailer and had swerved off the road, the spokeswoman said.

She said, however, that Sanders’ car entered the freeway 1 1/2 miles from where it rolled down the embankment. She said that three witnesses riding in a car to the left and slightly behind Sanders’ car substantiated Sanders’ account. The witnesses pursued Nevarez’s truck to record its license plate numbers and to try to stop him.

Nevarez was being held in Orange County Jail on $10,000 bail, and his arraignment was scheduled for today.

A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said there was no indication that Nevarez was intoxicated.