Freeway Mishap? Have a Checkbook Ready

Take out a guardrail, fork over up to $2,000. Spill a load of oranges, you might pay $15,000. Scrawl graffiti on an overpass, hand over maybe $1,900.

If you are to blame for an accident that damages the freeway, expect to receive a bill from Caltrans.

Under a little-known program, the state Department of Transportation last year sent out 5,581 bills seeking to recover more than $8.4 million for materials, cleanup, repair and traffic control costs for freeway mishaps in California.

Bills run into six figures. The tab for repairs to the Terminal Island Freeway from a recent Long Beach oil refinery fire is at $260,000 and climbing.

Just about everything has been spilled on freeways--dead and alive. A big rig recently lost 22 tons of shrimp on the Long Beach Freeway. (Had traffic reporter Bill Keene still been on the radio, he might have remarked, “When authorities arrived, you had fish and CHiPs.”)

And motorists often help themselves to what they can. Caltrans spokesman Vincent Moreno recalled a spilled load of name-brand athletic shoes on the Ventura Freeway.

“There were people stopping and getting out of their cars looking for whatever size they needed,” said Moreno. “People were out there saying, ‘Does anybody need a Size 9?’ ”

Traffic experts say accidents and spills contribute to half of freeway congestion. The other half is caused by too many cars on the road.

Caltrans suffered bad publicity earlier this year when it sent a bill for freeway damage to the parents of a teen-ager killed in a Bay Area accident. Officials dropped the matter.

“People are often surprised when they get a bill,” said Caltrans spokesman Russ Snyder.

Drivers who drink too much, fall asleep at the wheel or just aren’t paying attention slam into those familiar yellowtrash barrels ($233.90 each), guardrails ($35 per 12 1/2 feet), trees ($466 to $2,850, depending on age, size and species), call boxes ($1,168) and wooden signposts ($8 each).

Bills, which can be covered by private insurance, often run into the thousands of dollars when labor and equipment costs are added.

Caltrans also sends bills to graffiti vandals, or if they are juveniles, their parents.

But O.J. never received a bill for his famous freeway chase. There is no provision in the law for the CHP to recover the cost of car chases, although the agency routinely recovers up to $1,000 for each drunk driving arrest.

Some cleanup jobs require special skills.

“The CHP has had formal training on dealing with livestock,” said Moreno.

“Yeah, but not roping,” said CHP Sgt. Ernie Garcia, noting that officers are taught only how to use their cars to box in livestock. Authorities maintain lists of experts to help clean up messes--including cowboys who have rounded up stray cattle.

CHP officers say they have encountered spills of just about everything. Cash. Ice cream. Watermelons. Schoolbooks. Chemicals.

Cleanup costs can be expensive. For example, spilled milk can’t just be washed away. It must be soaked up or it could get into the storm drains that dump into the ocean and kill fish.

Officer Ken Wallace recalled encountering a spilled load of green peppers on the San Diego Freeway. “The smell was so intense that it made your eyes water,” he said. “It was slippery too.”

Caltrans allows businesses, within time limits, to try to salvage cargo from the freeway, even if it extends SigAlerts.

Said Moreno: “Our agency is here to work for everybody.”