Del Mar

The company that owns a tanker which caused a 13-hour tie-up on Interstate 5 Tuesday was involved in three other accidents and cited 139 times for safety violations in the past year, the California Highway Patrol said.

Two of the accidents were the result of Calzona Tankways Inc. drivers speeding, while the third was caused by an unsafe lane change, John Davis of the CHP said Wednesday. One of those accidents sent flaming fuel into a Sacramento suburb, burning four homes.

However, Davis said the company’s terminals all had satisfactory safety ratings and that the total 139 citations was average for the amount of miles covered by the company’s trucks.

No one was injured in Tuesday’s crash, and none of the truck’s 9,000-gallon cargo was spilled. The early morning accident backed up hundreds of thousands of San Diego motorists.