Spill Stops I-5 Traffic for Hours in Del Mar

A 50- to 100-pound bag of chemical pigment that fell off a truck and broke open on Interstate 5 near the Carmel Valley Road exit caused a monumental traffic snarl Thursday, as authorities shut down all four southbound lanes of the busy freeway for several hours, and northbound rubber-neckers turned their half of the highway into a parking lot.

The result was a line of cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles stretching for miles in both directions--a compaction of metal and frustrated motorists that was compounded when thousands attempted to leave the Del Mar Race Track after it closed for the day.

Iron Oxide Blamed

The bag of iron oxide--which county health officials described as more of a driving hazard than an immediate health risk--fell on the freeway about 4 p.m. Forty minutes later, according to a California Highway Patrol dispatcher, the southbound lanes were closed by authorities concerned about motorist safety.

San Diego Fire Department personnel at the scene covered the material with a large tarpaulin to keep it from blowing away.

“This is a major incident,” said Paul Von Norman, supervisor for Caltrans, interviewed at the scene Thursday night. “As long as I’ve been with this outfit, I’ve never seen this artery closed this long.

“If I see this opened by midnight, I’ll be surprised.”

Shortly after the freeway was closed, the Fire Department’s hazardous-materials unit arrived on the scene. It was then decided to bring in IT Corp., a private company that cleans up chemical spills.

Company officials, who arrived at the scene about 5:15, determined they would need their special vacuum trucks located in Mira Mesa.

But those trucks didn’t get to the scene until 8:30 because they were delayed by the huge traffic tie-up and because they attempted to get there by way of Black Mountain Road, which turns into dirt. The large trucks apparently had trouble maneuvering down the unpaved road.

At its worst, traffic was stopped as far as the Manchester Road exit in Encinitas, five miles from the spill, according to Caltrans officials.

As of late Thursday night, workers from IT Corp. were using vacuum trucks and shovels to move the chemical off the road and into barrels.

Officials diverted southbound traffic onto El Camino Real and Highway 101. At one point, when the Del Mar Race Track closed, police shut Highway 101 to allow cars stuck in the race track’s parking lot a way out.

“Everyone is having a hell of a time; there are cars all over the place,” Todd Price, a cashier at the Chevron station on Carmel Valley Road, said Thursday night. “Some of my customers say the freeway is backed up as much as 15 miles . . . that’s what they’re saying anyway.”

Price said that traffic was bad from the time the CHP shut part of the freeway but that the problem became much worse by about 7 p.m., as track patrons and rush-hour motorists converged onto the area’s streets.

Via de la Valle Jammed

Traffic on Via de la Valle, for example, was bumper to bumper heading east for six miles from I-5.

Gary Stephany, director of environmental health for the county Department of Health, said iron oxide is not toxic enough to pose a health hazard to people driving their vehicles through it.

“It’s an irritant to the eyes and the respiratory tract,” he said. “The real risk here is if it gets in your eyes and you can’t see for a while. I think there’s more of a safety risk than a health hazard.”

Stephany said, however, that people who drove through the spill and experienced eye or respiratory pain should consult a doctor.

The spill also caused at least one accident at Via de la Valle and old Highway 1, authorities said.