VENTURA : Truck Spills Sewage; Driver, 30, Injured

A sewage-truck driver swerving to avoid a coyote suffered serious injuries when his vehicle overturned early Monday on the Santa Paula Freeway east of Ventura, spilling gallons of raw sewage onto the road, the California Highway Patrol said.

Frank Delgadillo, 30, lost control of his two-ton truck when trying to avoid a coyote about 3:55 a.m. on the eastbound California 126 east of Wells Road, CHP Officer Brian DeMattia said.

The Oxnard man was driving an estimated 60 m.p.h. when his truck, which holds about 500 gallons of sewage, swerved to the right and hit the asphalt berm.

As he tried to regain control, the waste in the truck’s tank shifted, causing the vehicle to overturn, DeMattia said. The truck slid across the eastbound lanes and the oleander-lined dirt divider before coming to a rest on the oppositetraffic lanes.

“If it had been during rush hour, it might have been bad,” the officer added.

While on its side in the westbound lanes, the truck leaked about 200 gallons of sewage onto the freeway, J&W; Enterprises supervisor Brent Benado said.

He said the Ventura firm, whose vehicles empty portable toilets at construction sites, sent a second tanker to the scene and used water to wash the sewage off the road.

Delgadillo, who Benado said has been working for the firm for more than a year, was taken to Ventura County Medical Center, where a spokeswoman said he was in serious condition with a head laceration and rib fractures.

DeMattia did not know if Delgadillo had been wearing a seat belt.