ANAHEIM : Manchester Traffic Snarled by Accident
A semitrailer truck crashed through a chain-link fence and careened off the Santa Ana Freeway early Thursday, dumping a load of steel onto nearby Manchester Avenue.
The mishap snarled traffic on Manchester between Katella and Orangewood avenues for three hours.
The Gannon Trucking rig, out of Lodi, came to rest on its side, blocked lanes and released two 18,000-pound rolls of sheet steel, one of which crashed into the pavement and left a foot-deep crater in the road, according to the California Highway Patrol.
There were no injuries, and no other vehicles were involved.
The driver, 26-year-old Devon Phipps, told officers he lost control as he was traveling south on the freeway when his cigarette fell and he reached down in his cab to pick it up.
“He was very lucky because he could have killed himself and others,” said CHP Officer Timothy O’Toole. Manchester is parallel to and about the same elevation as the freeway.
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