Chain-Reaction Crash Clogs Traffic on I-5

A tanker carrying 9,000 gallons of gasoline overturned alongside Interstate 5 after a chain-reaction crash Tuesday morning, forcing the closure of the northbound lanes of San Diego’s main north-south traffic artery and disrupting morning and afternoon commutes.

No one was hurt and no gas spilled from the tank, but cars backed up for miles because northbound I-5 was closed from Del Mar Heights Road to Via de la Valle from about 5:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Southbound motorists also crippled traffic by pausing to look at the overturned truck-trailer rig just south of the San Dieguito River.

The chain-reaction crash began about 5 a.m. when a car driven by Michael Lee Marshall, 19, of San Diego, rear-ended a van that was stalled in the right-hand lane, said John Marinez, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol.

The driver of the van, who was described only as a man in his mid-20s, reportedly got out to see if Marshall was all right, then returned to his van and speeded off, Marinez said.

About three minutes later, another driver saw the flashing hazard lights of Marshall’s disabled car and pulled over to the right shoulder. Lori Carron, 31, of San Diego, then helped Marshall out of his car, Marinez said.

She had just put Marshall in the right front seat of her car and was standing on the right side of her car when the fully loaded, 18-wheel tanker smashed into Marshall’s car, pushing it into Carron’s car.

The crash caused the tanker to ricochet into the left lane, Marinez said. The driver, Mark Ellis Lattin, 38, of Lakeside, swerved to the right, tore across the shoulder and sheared through about 20 feet of steel guardrail, then roared down a 20-foot embankment and rolled upside-down, Marinez said. The front of the cab was smashed like an accordion, he said.

The truck came to rest on its top, Marinez said, adding, “It looks like a giant cockroach.”

Despite the seriousness of the crash and the traffic tie-up, investigators at the scene, near the Via de la Valle off-ramp to northbound I-5, stressed that things could have been far worse.

For one thing, nobody was seriously hurt, not even Lattin, the driver of the tanker, though the crash was so violent it sheared the front axle and wheels off the truck.

Lattin “had his seat belt on, took the roll and came out of it,” Marinez said. “That seat belt saved his neck.”

The truck landed a few yards south of the San Dieguito River. Work crews from the city of Del Mar created an instant dirt dike to contain any fuel, but none of the 9,000 gallons spilled, Marinez said.

A hole “about the size of a volleyball” was ripped in the bottom of the tank containing the gasoline, but, because the truck landed on its roof, there was no leakage, said Phil Konstantin, a CHP spokesman.

There was a “very small” spill of the diesel fuel powering the truck, Konstantin said.

Traffic was tied up for several miles in each direction--on northbound I-5, the jam at one time was backed up about 5 miles to Interstate 805, and, on southbound I-5, traffic was bumper-to-bumper for about 8 miles to Encinitas Boulevard. Investigators said traffic would have been even longer except for one stroke of scheduling fortune: no racing on Tuesday at the Del Mar race track. The Via de la Valle exit off I-5 is the main entrance to the track.

“We got big-time lucky today,” said CHP Sgt. Richard (Doc) Mehrtens, one of the officers in charge of the clean-up.

Authorities had to divert motorists east to El Camino Real, which took them north to Via de la Valle where they could re-enter I-5, Konstantin said.

Traffic also backed up on northbound Interstate 15 later in the day when a large truck jackknifed south of Valley Parkway about 4:30 p.m., spilling about 50 gallons of diesel fuel, said CHP Officer Jackie Sturges. I-15 was partly closed for the clean-up, which lasted about an hour, she said. “It was backed up because so many people were using I-15 as a detour because of the tanker spill,” she said.

Other roads used as detours for I-5, such as North Torry Pines Road and Pacific Coast Highway, were also backed up, Sturges said.

By 3:30 p.m., authorities had emptied the gasoline tanker, and northbound I-5 was reopened at 5:45 p.m., Konstantin said.

The clean-up was delayed Tuesday afternoon when a pump in the first vacuum truck used to remove the gasoline broke down, Konstantin said. Another vacuum truck had to be called to the scene.

The destroyed tanker, owned by Calzona Tankways Inc., was scheduled to be inspected in a few weeks, said John Davis, supervisor of the CHP’s Motor Division in San Diego.

It was last inspected and recertified Sept. 4, 1990, Davis said. The truck, which was first registered Oct. 19, 1989, has “no pattern of any problems,” he said. According to Davis, the trucking company has a satisfactory safety compliance rating.

Lattin, the driver of the rig, has been with the company since February, 1990, and has an excellent driving record, said George Wesson, a vice president for Calzona Tankways.

CHP officers have not finished their investigation and have not decided whether to cite Lattin, Konstantin said.