I-5 Truck Crash Stops Traffic for 18 Miles

A tractor-trailer rig carrying more than 4,000 gallons of gasoline overturned and exploded Saturday morning on Interstate 5 near Camp Pendleton, killing the driver and closing all eight lanes of the freeway in a daylong traffic jam.

William Christopher Lindwedel, a driver for Wright Oil Co. of Santee, was trapped in the driver’s seat of the flaming wreckage.

At its worst, southbound traffic was at a dead stop north for 18 miles to San Juan Capistrano, California Highway Patrol Sgt. Chon Gomez said. Some frustrated drivers, trapped on the freeway for six hours, paced on the shoulder. Others cut through the thick wire cables of the center divider at three spots to make U-turns onto the northbound lanes.

“It was the worst traffic I have ever seen,” said Steve Ford, a veteran helicopter pilot based in Orange County.

Lost Control

Lindwedel, 45, of Ramona, apparently lost control of the big rig at about 4:30 a.m., 3 miles south of the Las Pulgas exit. The truck, which carried two tanks full of gasoline, overturned near the center divider and immediately burst into flames, said Camp Pendleton Fire Department Capt. Dennis Cross.

When firefighters arrived just four minutes later, they saw “a 50-yard radius of solid fire,” Cross said. The tanker itself blocked two lanes of traffic, but dry brush on the right side of the freeway ignited from the heat of the fire, forming an impassable wall of flames.

The CHP closed all lanes of traffic each way because fire officials, not knowing what the tanker contained, feared the smoke might be toxic.

“We couldn’t see any of the markings on the truck or anything,” Cross said. “We couldn’t even get close enough to see if the driver was still inside.”

Searched Area

Cross said he dispatched two teams of firefighters to search the area in case the driver had stumbled from the wreckage. Lindwedel’s remains were later discovered inside the cab, Cross said.

Firefighters did not spray water on the flaming wreckage at first, in case it contained a water-reactant chemical, Cross said. Hazardous-materials teams arrived by helicopter and determined that the burning substance was gasoline. Firefighters extinguished the flames about 5:30 a.m.

Meanwhile, CHP and Caltrans workers rerouted vehicles through Camp Pendleton, but the effort did little to alleviate the tremendous traffic tie-up that had begun before sunrise.

CHP dispatcher Jonette Edwards said the agency advised southbound drivers to take the Ortega Highway to Interstate 15 to San Diego. But eventually the Ortega Highway also backed up for 12 miles, and the CHP issued another Sigalert advising drivers to avoid it.

Inched Past Hulk

All northbound lanes were reopened about 9 a.m. Two southbound lanes were opened at about 11:30 a.m., and for the next several hours cars inched past the hulk of blackened metal that remained in the fast lane. All lanes were reopened by 4 p.m. At 7:30 p.m., traffic was still moving slowly, backed up to the northern boundary of Camp Pendleton.

No other accidents were reported as a result of the overturned truck--probably because traffic was light at the time of the accident, officials said. Gomez said the CHP expected to cruise the sides of the freeway later in the day to rescue motorists whose cars broke down or ran out of gas in the lineup.

Highway patrol investigators at the scene examined the skid marks left by the truck in an attempt to determine the cause of the accident. It was not known Saturday evening what caused the driver to lose control of the big rig, but CHP officials speculated that Lindwedel may have fallen asleep at the wheel. The tire tracks indicated that the rig ran off the road and was headed toward the northbound lanes, but veered away sharply just before colliding with the fence in the center divider.

‘Lost It’

“Apparently, he caught himself before he hit the cable, tried to steer back onto the road and lost it,” Gomez said.

Lindwedel is survived by his wife, Roberta, a spokesman for the San Diego County coroner’s office said.

The cleanup effort continued throughout the day, and a disposal service company was brought in to remove 200 to 300 gallons of gasoline that remained inside the wreckage. Cross said some of the gasoline that had run into nearby drainage ditches would be flushed with water and suctioned out by the disposal company. The gasoline did not flow far enough to contaminate the ocean or other sources of water, he said.