1998 Study Marked 5 Dangerous Freeway Sites

The Fullerton freeway interchange where a fiery crash fatally injured two men last week was pinpointed in a transit agency study a year ago as one of five in Orange County prone to truck accidents.

The study, reinforced by figures released this week by Caltrans, recommended increased enforcement by California Highway Patrol officers in the area during a massive freeway widening and improvement project that has been in progress there since 1996.

The March 1998 report commissioned by the Orange County Transportation Authority identified interchanges in Orange County that pose the potential for serious truck accidents, but little has been done during the past year to improve safety at those locations, transit officials acknowledged Friday.

“It’s not a short-term issue,” said John Standiford, spokesman for OCTA. “We’ve been studying how best to fix the problems, but a lot of them are pretty complicated and costly to solve.”

Truck safety overall is a serious concern for county officials, Standiford said. Possible solutions are adding truck bypass lanes, converting carpool onramps to truck entrances and changing existing ramps. OCTA board members on Monday will review progress in addressing the issue, including what steps might be taken to reduce the risk of truck accidents.

In the wake of the March 12 tanker-truck crash on a transition ramp from the Santa Ana Freeway to the Riverside Freeway, Standiford said, county transit officials will reexamine safety adjustments that could be made during the two years of construction remaining.

“We want Caltrans to take a look at this. We’re concerned about it ourselves,” Standiford said of the crash site, where the tanker collided with a car, engulfing the highway in flames as the truck’s cargo of gasoline and diesel fuel ignited. The truck driver, who was severely burned, died the next day in a hospital.

Ten truck accidents have occurred at the same spot in the two years since construction began on the $1-billion Santa Ana Freeway widening project, a joint venture of Caltrans and OCTA. No accidents were reported there in the previous three years.

According to the 1998 OCTA study, the other roads most likely to have truck accidents are:

* The confluence of the Garden Grove and San Diego freeways in the Westminster-Seal Beach area. A study seeking ways to improve traffic flow there is expected to be finished by year’s end.

* The Orange Freeway near the Los Angeles County line. That stretch of road is being considered for a truck bypass lane or toll lanes. A study of those options is expected to be completed this spring.

* Interstate 5 at La Paz Road in Mission Viejo. That area is the subject of ongoing analysis because it is a traffic bottleneck.

* The interchange of the Riverside and Orange freeways in Anaheim. Construction is underway to reconfigure the ramps and is expected to be completed in early 2000.

California Highway Patrol officers are investigating the March 12 crash, which was the 10th on the westbound ramp from the Riverside Freeway to the northbound Santa Ana Freeway since construction began there.

Witnesses told officers that the driver of the truck was going faster than the posted 25-mph speed limit.

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Changing Lanes?

Four intersections or stretches of highway in Orange County were identifiedas prone to truck accidents in a March 1998 study. The interchange of the Riverside Freeway (SR-91) and Santa Ana Freeway (I-5), now under construction, was the site of a fatal accident last week.