COSTA MESA : Drivers on Red Alert After Tomatoes Spill

A box of tomatoes fell from a truck and splattered across a busy intersection Wednesday, briefly replacing the smell of exhaust with the smell of fresh spaghetti sauce.

Truck driver Ramon Zambrano said he shifted gears abruptly while going north on Harbor Boulevard and jolted a box of about 50 tomatoes off the back of his flatbed trailer just before 2 p.m.

There was little interruption of traffic, and some motorists were amused by the sight.

“Did you get hit by a tomato?” one woman in a car shouted to a cable repairman, as she rounded the splotchy-red corner of Harbor Boulevard and South Coast Drive.

Zambrano, a five-year driver for Murai Farms Ranch in Irvine, said he was “a little scared” when the tomatoes flew off his truck. He pulled into a bus turnout on Harbor Boulevard to retrieve the fallen fruit that was still in one piece.