Big-Rig Crash Kills Three in Truck Driver’s Family

A big rig apparently sliding on its own leaking diesel fuel smashed into a guardrail early Friday on a freeway overpass in San Dimas, ejecting the trucker’s wife, daughter and nephew to their deaths 100 feet below.

Truck driver Clemente Baez Jr. of Murrieta was driving his 1992 Freightliner about 2:45 a.m. on the transition ramp from southbound Interstate 210 to the eastbound San Bernardino Freeway with his family sleeping in the tractor-trailer when the tragedy occurred, authorities said.

California Highway Patrol investigators say diesel fuel apparently leaked from a tank on one of two trailers the rig was towing and spilled onto the wheels.

“The tractor-trailer was apparently slipping and sliding. It hit the guardrail on the freeway overpass and finally smashed into a concrete pillar,” said CHP Officer John Escobedo.

The force of the impact hurled Baez’s wife, Laura, 38, and their 5-year-old daughter, Sara, from the sleeping compartment behind the driver, and through the windshield and down onto a dirt median along the San Bernardino Freeway, Escobedo said.

The driver’s 12-year-old nephew, Victor Bruce of Las Vegas, who was sleeping in the front passenger seat, was thrown out the rig’s side window to the area below, officials said. All three died instantly, Escobedo said.

The 44-year-old truck driver, who was wearing a seat belt, was not hurt. His 3-year-old son, Jonathan, survived the 100-foot fall from the cab because bushes cushioned his landing, Escobedo said.

The child was in fair condition late Friday at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles after surgery to repair a broken left pelvis and right leg, said Steve Rutledge, a hospital spokesman.

When CHP officers arrived at the crash scene about 30 miles east of Los Angeles, “Baez was frantically looking for his family. It was dark and he was unable to see,” Escobedo said.

“Officers went down to the embankment below and tried to render first aid. While checking the three bodies, they heard the cries of the baby,” Escobedo said.

Relatives kept vigil at the hospital Friday afternoon.

“That’s a miracle in itself. I don’t know if angels were carrying him down or what. . . . I can’t explain it,” relative Noel Baez told reporters.

Truckers in Monrovia had tried to warn Clemente Baez of the impending disaster, Escobedo said. “Earlier on the [Foothill Freeway], passersby saw the diesel spraying from beneath the truck. They tried in vain to get the driver’s attention on the CB,” he said.

Immediately after the crash, Baez told officers at the scene he knew the truck was “spilling fuel,” Escobedo said.

While the diesel fuel may have caused the wreck, Escobedo said, high speed and other circumstances have not been ruled out as potentially contributing to the incident. Baez was not arrested and the crash remains under investigation, he said.

The truck was hauling 70,000 pounds of metal products and furniture for his employer, Modular Metal Fabricators Inc. of Moreno Valley. Company officials declined to comment Friday.

Federal records indicate that the company had one injury crash in the last two years, and federal transportation officials gave the company a “satisfactory” safety rating--the best available.

Times correspondent Richard Winton contributed to this story.