Two Horses Rescued After Freeway Truck-Trailer Spill
Firefighters used the Jaws of Life on Sunday to pry open an overturned horse trailer and rescue two horses on the Riverside Freeway in Anaheim Hills.
A pickup truck pulling the trailer jackknifed about 12:30 p.m. in the eastbound lanes, just west of the Eastern tollway, backing up holiday traffic for several hours as firefighters used ropes to pull the horses from the wreckage, said Anaheim Fire Department spokeswoman Robyn Butler.
The “surprising thing is that [the horses] turned out to be OK,” Butler said. Animal control officers sedated the horses and they were taken away in another trailer, she said.
The pickup’s driver and a passenger were not injured in the solo accident.
Blair Foreman, who witnessed the accident, said it appeared that a tire on the pickup blew out.
“The trailer just lost control,” said Foreman, who works for the toll road and saw the accident on video. “All of a sudden you could see his trailer just started to wobble, and it just got worse and worse.”
A California Highway Patrol spokesman said the horses panicked and shifted the weight of the trailer. The cause of the accident was under investigation.
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