Motorist in Sports Car Killed by Load Knocked Off Big Rig

A 35-year-old motorist was killed Friday night when an empty 7,000-pound underground fuel container was knocked off a big rig flatbed truck and rolled over his sports car on the westbound Riverside Freeway transition to the Orange Freeway, police said.

The California Highway Patrol withheld the name of the motorist, pending notification of family members. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police did not cite the big-rig driver, Lyle Wilson, 42, of Salt Lake City. He was hauling the container, manufactured by Xerxes Corp. in Anaheim, to Salt Lake City. Wilson was not injured.

Sgt. Diane Hartz said the big rig was in the right lane of the transition preparing to head north on the Orange Freeway while the driver of the white Datsun 300ZX was in the left lane ready to go south. As they went under the La Palma Avenue bridge, which has a clearance of 14 feet, 10 inches, the container hit the bottom of the bridge and was knocked off the truck.

The container rolled over the sports car and came to rest on a guard rail.

“It just came off and crushed him,” Hartz said about the victim. “It appears it broke his neck.”

There were scrape marks on the bridge but no other visible damage.

Wilson, a trucker for 26 years, was hauling the cargo for Statewide Transport in Salt Lake City.

The transition road, which leads to both the northbound and the southbound Orange Freeway, was closed until about midnight while police investigated the accident and awaited crews to remove the container and the car. Westbound traffic was backed up about half a mile.