Impact Sets Loose Part of Load of Rabbits : Trucker Killed in I-5 Crash in Carlsbad

The driver of a flatbed truck carrying hundreds of rabbits was killed Monday when his vehicle veered off Interstate 5 and crashed into a parked tractor-trailer in Carlsbad.

The 48-year-old driver, whose name was not released pending notification of his family, died instantly, San Diego County coroner’s deputies said.

About 40 of the roughly 800 rabbits were killed, and about 200 others were sprung from their cages by the impact. A few of the rabbits ran out into moving traffic but most huddled under parked cars and in roadside bushes for several hours while county animal control officers, firefighters and passing motorists rounded them up.

The accident occurred at 1:20 p.m. just north of the Tamarack Avenue exit. The truck, which belonged to the El Monte Rabbit Co. in San Gabriel Valley, was northbound when it veered out of the slow lane onto the right shoulder for no apparent reason, officials said. The truck then slammed into an 18-wheeler whose driver had pulled over to switch fuel tanks.

The driver of the tractor-trailer, Antonio Guardado of Tijuana, was not injured.

Officer Jerry Bohrer of the California Highway Patrol said the driver of the flatbed apparently didn’t apply his brakes as he moved toward the shoulder. Motorists who had been riding behind the rabbit truck said the driver had been traveling at 40 m.p.h. and had shown no erratic signs before the accident.

There was speculation at the scene that the driver might have suffered a heart attack, but the coroner’s office will not be able to determine the cause of death until an autopsy is completed today.

About a dozen motorists stopped to help animal control officers gather the rabbits and take them to a North County animal shelter, where they will join the other rabbits left on the truck. Many of the animals were blackened by gasoline that had spilled onto the road when the larger truck’s gas tank ruptured.

Sally Hazard of the county animal control office said any rabbits that suffered severe injuries would be painlessly killed. The others will be held at the animal shelter until today, when their owner is expected to retrieve them.

The truck was taking the rabbits, which were raised at a county farm, north to El Monte, where they were to be processed for meat.

Times staff writer Eric Bailey contributed to this story.