Truck Accident Closes Highway, Causes Outages

A tractor-trailer truck carrying bags of cement drifted off California 118 early Monday morning near Mesa School Road hitting a power pole and closing the highway for more than 10 hours.

The accident, which left cement bags strewn across the two-lane road on a curve in the highway, also knocked out power for about 2,300 customers between Saticoy and Camarillo, officials said.

Truck driver Leslie Mayfield, 26, of Banning said he lost control of the truck after becoming nauseous, CHP Officer Steven Reid said.

Mayfield was treated for minor injuries at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard and released.

While workers spent much of the morning removing the broken and scattered cement bags and towed away the wrecked rig, employees from Southern California Edison re-erected power poles and restrung the downed power lines.

One lane of the highway was opened for through traffic just after 3 p.m., but work continued until late in the afternoon to fix the downed lines. Power to many customers was restored within hours.