2 Hurt, Splashed With Weed Killer as Car Rear-Ends Herbicide Truck

A car crashed into an herbicide truck in Newport Beach Wednesday morning, leaving the motorist trapped and causing a minor spill.

The driver of the car, Paul Diamond, 36, of Laguna Beach, suffered a neck sprain, and firefighters had to cut him out of his car.

The truck driver, Michael Skapik, 32, of La Habra, received a laceration to his forehead. Both men were also splashed on the arms and shoulders with the herbicide, a 1% solution of a weed-killer, police and firefighters said.

The men were taken to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian and treated for minor skin irritation and their other injuries. Skapik was released from the hospital, while Diamond was transferred to South Coast Medical Center, where a nurse said he was in stable condition.

Skapik, who was driving a herbicide truck owned by Landscape West of Anaheim, was traveling slowly west on Coast Highway near Balboa Boulevard when he was rear-ended by Diamond, said Deputy Chief August Wagner of the Newport Beach Fire Department.

The impact caused the truck driver to drop a hose he was using to spray weeds in a street median. Wagner said the 20-gallon spill posed no hazard to passing motorists or to nearby residents.

The accident closed the two westbound lanes of Coast Highway about an hour while city crews cleaned the area, Wagner said.