No Barrier : Truck Careens Off Freeway, Hits 2 Houses

North Hollywood residents renewed their pleas Wednesday for a sound barrier along the Hollywood Freeway after a tractor-trailer truck carrying hazardous waste careened off the road and plowed into two houses.

“We’ve been fighting this thing for years, trying to get a barrier,” said Diana Cobb, who lives next to one of the damaged houses. “Now maybe they’ll listen.”

No one was hurt in the accident, which occurred north of Saticoy Street shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday. California Highway Patrol investigators said they believe the driver of the 18-wheel flatbed truck loaded with containers of used asbestos insulation drifted onto the freeway shoulder, hit a parked car and crashed down an embankment.

The driver fled after asking the startled resident of one of the damaged houses on Babcock Avenue to call 911 for help, CHP Officer Randy Klucker said.

Compton Firm’s Truck

The truck is registered to J. Cal Transportation of Compton, Klucker said. But investigators could not immediately determine who was driving the truck, he said, adding that their inquiry is continuing.

The vehicle was removed from the back yards of the two houses Wednesday morning after the Los Angeles County Health Department determined that none of the sealed asbestos containers had opened in the accident, Klucker said.

After years of complaining to various agencies without results, the North Hollywood Residents Assn. formed a coalition last July to push for freeway sound walls in its community. Their plan included the Hollywood Freeway section that was the scene of Tuesday night’s accident, said Bob Brice, a Babcock Avenue resident and association member.

“We’ve always known this could happen, but we certainly hoped it wouldn’t happen,” Brice said. “We didn’t want to wait for a tragedy before we did something.”

William Minter, a state Department of Transportation engineer, said a block or poured concrete sound wall probably would not have prevented the accident.

“It hit so hard, had there been a wall there, there would have been a wall and a truck in those houses,” he said.

Guardrail Study

Minter said Caltrans will study whether a guardrail would help the area where the truck left the freeway. But he said Caltrans’ research has shown that guardrails sometimes make accident situations worse.

Neighbors said they would welcome a guardrail, but they still believe a sound wall would have slowed the truck.

“We need both of them,” Brice said.

The truck flew through Sam Yacharn’s back yard, leaving holes in the back of his house and skid marks on his chimney, then landed in Rolando Manasala’s kitchen. It could not be immediately determined how much it will cost to repair the two stucco houses in the 7800 block of Babcock Avenue.

“I heard a big boom, you know,” said Manasala, who was watching television when the crash occurred. “I told my wife, ‘It’s a big earthquake coming down.’ ”

Swing Set in Kitchen

When Manasala entered his kitchen, he saw rubble and glass and twisted metal, which turned out to be Yacharn’s back-yard swing set. But he didn’t see the truck.

“Then I heard a voice that said, ‘Anybody home? I need help,’ ” he said. “It was the truck driver.”

Manasala could not get a dial tone on his telephone, so he left to use a neighbor’s phone. When he returned home a few minutes later, he said, the truck driver was gone.

The houses on Babcock Avenue were built a decade after the freeway opened in 1968. Proposals for sound walls in that area became mired in a power struggle between Caltrans and the Los Angeles City Planning Department, Brice said.

Caltrans’ Minter said the city is at fault for allowing a developer to build next to the freeway without requiring sound barriers. But Rick Kunz, field deputy for Councilman Joel Wachs, said no precedent exists for the city to get involved with freeway sound-wall decisions.