Toppled Truck Makes Freeway a Parking Lot

A tanker truck hauling 4,100 gallons of diesel fuel overturned on the Santa Ana Freeway on Friday afternoon, creating a massive traffic jam that lasted more than three hours.

Truck driver Wayne Townsend, 52, told California Highway Patrol officers that he attempted to pull off the freeway near Main Street in Santa Ana because of a smoking rear tire. But as he maneuvered the big rig to the shoulder off the southbound lanes, the brakes locked and the trailer rolled over, causing its load of fuel to begin leaking.

Townsend, who was not injured, works for Nickey’s Petroleum Co. in Santa Ana. He told investigators that he was returning to the company’s yard after a pickup in Orange when motorists began honking as they drove by and gesturing that something was wrong with his rig.

“It was a malfunction of the truck’s brakes,” said CHP Sgt. Diane Hartz. “There was no air in the brakes, and that was what made them lock.” The truck’s rear tires apparently had been smoking for more than three miles, she said.

Townsend was not cited in the incident, which happened about 2:15 p.m. and forced closure of the Main Street offramp and connectors to the Santa Ana and Garden Grove freeways. Traffic on those and the Orange Freeway was backed up for miles.

Hazardous materials teams from Santa Ana and Anaheim made sand berms to block storm drains while Caltrans crews used vacuum hoses to pump up the oil and contaminated water.

Most of the fuel in the overturned tanker did not spill. Firefighters drilled a hole into the tank so the fuel could be pumped into another truck brought to the scene.

Times correspondent Susan McCormack contributed to this report.