Crash Ties Up Traffic Near Castaic : Golden State Freeway: Southbound lanes are closed after a big rig slams into a tanker. Cleanup of spilled oil may take up to 10 days.

All southbound lanes of the Golden State Freeway near Castaic were closed for much of the day Tuesday after a speeding big rig slammed into a fuel tanker on a steep grade, injuring the two drivers and spilling about 7,500 gallons of oil, authorities said.

Motorists along the main route linking Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley experienced delays of up to an hour as traffic was rerouted onto side roads, California Highway Patrol Officer Doug Villars said.

The accident was caused, in part, because the trucker in the tractor-trailer was trying to eat sunflower seeds and drive at the same time, Villars said.

Two lanes of the roadway were reopened about 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, about nine hours after the 5:20 a.m. crash that slightly injured truck drivers Pete Hernandez, 47, of Chino and Rafael Chavez Quiroga, 42, of Bakersfield. Both men were treated for minor injuries at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Santa Clarita and released.

The remaining two southbound lanes reopened by 9:20 p.m., after hazardous materials crews cleared the roadway of desulfurized gasoline oil, an intermediate fuel that is not extremely flammable under normal conditions, said CHP Officer Stefanie McClung.

It was “a big mess up there,” she said.

CHP Officer Ben Dibene said it may take a week to 10 days and cost more than $1 million to remove all the oil that spilled onto the freeway and seeped into an adjacent canyon.

Throughout the day, crews sprinkled sand on the pavement to soak up oil and tried to prevent the spill from spreading with small dirt dams. High-powered vacuums were used to suck up much of the spill. Oil in the canyon must be removed with heavy equipment and contaminated dirt replaced with clean soil.

“It’s a slow, tedious process,” Dibene said.

Southbound traffic was diverted off the freeway at Templin Highway onto Ridge Route Road and back on in Castaic, about five miles away. Cars were backed up as far as six miles during the day.

According to Villars, Quiroga was driving his tanker south in the right lane of the freeway about two miles south of Templin Highway between 25 and 30 m.p.h. when Hernandez rear-ended him at approximately 75 m.p.h.

Villars said Hernandez was eating sunflower seeds and listening to his CB radio before the crash and did not see Quiroga’s truck ahead of him. The speed limit for trucks in that stretch of road--a steep grade descending into Castaic--is 45 m.p.h., Villars said, adding that Hernandez likely will be cited for causing the crash.

Impact from the crash knocked Quiroga’s tanker onto its side and ripped open both tanks of fuel that he was transporting from Bakersfield to the Texaco refinery in Long Beach. Approximately 3,000 gallons oozed into an adjacent canyon, California Department of Fish and Game Warden Cindy Haight said. The extent of environmental damage was unknown, she said.