Motorist OK After Truck Topples Beam

A La Jolla man suffered only a broken hand and bruises Tuesday when a steel beam was dislodged from a freeway bridge under construction and crushed his car.

The girder fell on the eastbound lanes of Interstate 8 at the California 163 interchange after a Navy trailer riding high on the back of a flatbed truck tried to squeeze under the new overpass and scraped several girders, knocking one down.

Thomas Murry, 46, was listed in good condition at UC San Diego Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Nancy Stringer said.

California Highway Patrol officers at the scene marveled that Murry escaped with relatively minor injuries. The 1989 Acura he was driving was crumpled like a tin can and declared a total loss. The 60-foot steel beam bounced off the car and fell on the pavement with such force that it bent.

“Mr. Murry is very lucky, and I mean very lucky,” CHP Officer Jim Anderson said. “There were 30 feet of skid marks. He must have hit his brakes at just the right moment. If he had hit them one foot later, his side of the car would have been directly under the beam.”

The 10:14 a.m. accident shut down eastbound traffic on I-8 for about 40 minutes, Anderson said. CHP officers routed traffic to southbound 163.

Jose Cadave, 57, who was driving the Navy truck from a naval base in Point Loma, was cited at the scene for operating an over-height vehicle and violating the permit issued by the California Department of Transportation to transport the communications trailer, Anderson said. Cadave was not hurt.

According to Caltrans, the Navy truck was issued a permit Monday with a height restriction of 14 feet, 8 inches. Anderson said that measurements showed that the vehicle and trailer combined measured between 15 feet 1 3/4 inches and 15 feet 5 1/2 inches. Caltrans officials said the bridge, which will connect westbound I-8 to southbound 163, has a clearance of 14 feet 11 inches.

“The trailer riding on the truck wouldn’t fit under the bridge. He hit about five or six beams, and the last one came down on the highway,” Anderson said.

He added that the beam fell at an angle and “took out the passenger side” of Murry’s car, including the windshield and dashboard, and crushed the left front tire.

“The roof came down on him, so he got a knot on his head and a few abrasions. But for all practical purposes, he is in remarkably good shape. It’s amazing that that outcome wasn’t more tragic,” Anderson said.

Murry was driving in the No. 2 lane and Cadave was in the No. 3, he added. The trailer had minor damage, most of it limited to the roof, where some metal was peeled back.

Anderson said the trailer was being transported to North Island Naval Air Station and that the Caltrans permit required Cadave to take a route east from Point Loma on I-8 and south on I-805 before returning to the coast.

Caltrans officials said the accident will not delay work on the $13-million project, which began in April and is expected to be completed in the summer of 1991.