Commute a Bit Slow? Blame Four SigAlerts

If the morning commute took a bit longer than usual Tuesday, there was good reason: four SigAlerts that tied up traffic the length and breadth of Orange County.

“It’s very unusual that we have this many SigAlerts in one day,” Highway Patrol Officer Linda Burrus said. “It pretty much screwed up all the freeways.”

The SigAlerts, issued during unusually disruptive traffic accidents, began at 6:15 a.m. on the Riverside Freeway and continued on other freeways for much of the day, Burrus said. Luckily, she added, the rash of traffic accidents resulted in only three minor injuries.

The most troublesome accident occurred on the southbound San Diego Freeway at the El Toro Y when the load on a tractor-trailer shifted and about 150 bags of redwood compost fell onto the freeway, clogging all but a portion of the slow lane, Burrus said.

The spilled load caused the driver of a 1984 Datsun to swerve to the right, hit an asphalt curb and tumble off the freeway. The driver of the Datsun suffered only minor injuries, but the accident backed traffic up for miles.

“That’s the worst place to have an accident,” Burrus said. “There is just no place to get off the freeway.” The SigAlert was canceled at 8:52 a.m., and the driver of the tractor-trailer was cited for spilling the load.

Just before 6 a.m., a fuel tank on a truck going east onto the Riverside Freeway from the northbound Santa Ana Freeway ruptured, spilling about 175 gallons of diesel onto the road, Burrus said.

The driver was able to pull the rig to the side of the road as it reached the Gilbert Street overpass. But 20 minutes later, as traffic began backing up, a car skidded on the slick road surface, causing a chain reaction that involved six cars, Burrus said.

Traffic was tied up on the Riverside and Santa Ana freeways. There was only one minor injury involved in that SigAlert, which was also canceled at 8:52 a.m.

Then at 10:40 a.m., a woman allegedly making an unsafe lane change on the transition road from the southbound Orange Freeway to the eastbound Garden Grove Freeway rear-ended the motorcycle of a CHP officer, prompting the third SigAlert of the day.

Burrus said the officer was pulling into the lane after making a traffic stop. At the same time, the woman driver, reportedly going about 70 m.p.h., was maneuvering around another car and failed to notice the officer, hitting the rear of his motorcycle and throwing him off, Burrus said. He was taken to Tustin Health Center for treatment of scrapes and bruises.

That accident brought traffic to a crawl on both freeways for more than an hour.

The fourth SigAlert occurred at 12:10 p.m. on the westbound Riverside Freeway just east of Harbor Boulevard, Burrus said.

In that accident, a Volvo in the slow lane made an unsafe lane change to the left and struck a Mercedes driving alongside it.

The Mercedes went out of control and crossed three lanes of traffic before slamming into the rear of a big rig. The impact punctured the truck’s fuel tank, spilling more than a hundred gallons of diesel, Burrus said.