SATICOY : Officials Sweep Lemons After Freeway Spill
California Highway Patrol and state Department of Transportation officials worked for more than an hour Thursday to clean hundreds of lemons off the Santa Paula Freeway in Saticoy after two crates slipped off the back of a truck.
The incident, which occurred about 11 a.m. near Wells Road, renewed questions about the use of plastic shipping containers, which one local grower said are less expensive but are more prone to sliding off trucks.
“The contractors have been warned that they need to take more precautions to secure the plastic crates to the trucks because they’re more slippery,” said J. Link Leavens of Leavens Ranches in Ventura. “It’s been a problem we’ve been encountering a lot recently.”
Leavens, whose ranch was not involved in Thursday’s spill, said the industry has gradually seen traditional wooden crates replaced by the plastic containers because they are cheaper, easily recycled and do less damage to the fruit during transit.
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