Errant Truck Knocks Out Power : Oversize Vehicle Hits Poles, Causes Outage in Sylmar
Electricity to 400 Sylmar residences was cut for about 1 1/2 hours Saturday morning when one of the largest trucks ever to enter California missed a turn and knocked down several power poles, Los Angeles police said.
The 18-wheel flatbed truck, carrying a 20-foot-tall pineapple juice processor, is 106 feet long and 15 feet wide. Truck and cargo weighed 80 tons.
The truck was heading south on Foothill Boulevard just north of Balboa Boulevard about 1:30 a.m. when its driver lost control, said Police Officer Dennis Smith.
Electricity from the power poles started a small brush fire, a witness said.
‘Really Big’
“This was a really big, overloaded, oversize truck,” Smith said.
“It could very well be the biggest vehicle ever to come into the state of California,” he added.
The driver, Kenneth Green, 34, of Forney, Tex., was transporting the processing tank from Houston to Long Beach.
The cargo’s final destination was Hawaii, Smith said.
He said the truck carried overload permits from the city and the county of Los Angeles.
A Los Angeles Department of Water and Power spokesman said power was restored about 3 a.m.
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