Audit Finds Basic Flaws in Routing of Oversize Trucks

Fundamental flaws in Caltrans’ internal communications played a key role in more than 30 incidents over four years in which oversize trucks were misrouted, including one case resulting in a crash that killed a Westminster man, a new state audit has concluded.

The 30-page report by the state auditor’s office said California Department of Transportation officials have already “identified the major problems with the [truck] permitting process.”

The audit recommended further improvements to streamline the way state officials route more than 180,000 oversize trucks a year along 15,000 miles of California highways.

The audit issued Wednesday faulted Caltrans for relying on two people statewide--in offices in San Bernardino and Redding--to handle hundreds of field reports of roadway changes and construction projects. The workers enter the reports into a database with which permit operators work.

Because of lax reporting of temporary road changes by highway construction crews and the timing of permit requests, a driver could be given an approved route only to discover that roadwork has rendered it impassable, the audit found.

It also said the system of hand-processing permits increased the likelihood of human error, and recommended that Caltrans devise a computer system that would effectively block the issuing of permits for vehicles too big for conditions on their proposed routes.

Flaws in the truck-permitting system came to light last July when a 15-foot-tall fuel truck struck a 14-foot-10-inch overpass on the Riverside Freeway in Anaheim, killing motorist Tam Trong Tran, 36, of Westminster.

The rig was driving a route approved by a Caltrans permit worker who, despite the warnings of a computer program, didn’t notice that the bridge was 2 inches lower than the truck. An accident report said the truck’s excessive speed also played a role, because the driver couldn’t respond to a height-limit warning sign in time, according to the audit.

Auditors recommended improving Caltrans staff training and establishing a procedure under which staff members would be held accountable for failure to comply with reporting policies.

Those recommendations came in addition to Caltrans’ own request for 17 more positions, many of which would be assigned to the permitting process, and for a $13.2-million computer system to automate permit requests now processed by hand.

However, the audit pointed out that Caltrans recognized in 1994 that problems existed but failed then to implement its own plan to reconfigure staffing.

Chuck Mack, the Oakland-based Western region vice president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said the audit hit on a key truck safety issue--better enforcement of regulations.

“The Highway Patrol and Caltrans do the best they can with what they’ve got, but they rely too much on the goodwill [of drivers] and voluntary compliance,” Mack said, adding that government cutbacks have increased the risk to public safety.

Caltrans spokesman Jim Drago said the audit “validates the path we’re taking,” including requests in Gov. Gray Davis’ 2000-01 budget for more staff to issue permits and a new computer system for the permitting process. That budget has yet to be approved by the Legislature.

An earlier request for more staffing was rejected by the state Department of Finance, the audit said. But Drago said that had more to do with timing than with need. He said finance officials recommended that the department include the request in the upcoming budget rather than seek immediate help, which the finance officials judged unnecessary.

“They said it was better to go through the normal budget process rather than to go for a specific immediate appropriation, because we’re only talking about a matter of months,” Drago said.