1 Killed in Chain of Collisions

A driverless truck rolled down an embankment and onto the Ventura Freeway in Camarillo on Tuesday, triggering a chain of collisions and a fiery explosion that left one woman dead and closed the highway for several hours.

The accident occurred shortly before 11 a.m. in the southbound lanes near the Central Avenue onramp, snarling traffic for at least 10 miles. Nearby streets and California 118 were jammed for hours.

The incident began when work crews for a Caltrans contractor arrived to do road striping near the onramp, said California Highway Patrol Lt. Robert J. Del Mese. The workers parked one of their trucks along the onramp and got out to set up safety cones.

The unmanned truck began rolling down the ramp, veering across an embankment and into the path of a big rig. “I was changing my shirt and I looked up and saw the truck driving away,” said Maika Pele, one of the crew members. “But the guys were still behind me getting the cones.”

The big rig veered to avoid the runaway truck, slamming into a Dodge Ram pickup and igniting a fire. A propane tank in the maintenance truck exploded, engulfing the wreckage in flames.

Pele said he and other crew members were “in shock. . . . I was running down, chasing the truck, but the accident had already happened and flames were going up.”

“Everything was on fire,” said Ryan Cox, 30, driver of the pickup. “I got out; I ran.”

Authorities initially thought three vehicles had been involved. It wasn’t until firefighters extinguished the blaze that they spotted a car crushed under the big rig.

The driver had apparently been trapped in the compact car and died in the blaze, officials said.

Coroner’s officials had still not identified the victim late Tuesday.

A passenger in the big rig, 36-year-old Timothy Allen McCarty of Illinois, was taken to St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo where he was treated for a cut to his shoulder, said CHP Officer Steven Reid.

McCarty’s wife, Simone, 33, the driver of the big rig, was not injured, Reid said. Investigators are focusing on whether the parking brake had been set on the truck, owned by Super Seal and Stripe based in Fillmore.

David Pele, a spokesman for Super Seal and Stripe, said that he could not confirm accounts of the runaway vehicle but that he knew of no defects with the truck.

“To the best of my knowledge, the truck was in good mechanical order,” he said, adding that the crew was accustomed to following Caltrans’ rigorous procedures for closing lanes.

Super Seal and Stripe has drawn the attention of Cal/OSHA just once since 1990, according to agency spokesman Dean Fryer. No citation was issued in that case, which involved a 1995 workplace accident in Oxnard.

As the day progressed and investigators sifted through the wreckage and ashes, northbound traffic backed up at least 10 miles, CHP officials said. Southbound traffic was slowed but lanes remained open. Drivers looking for alternative routes found themselves stuck in slow-moving traffic on Camarillo side streets and nearby California 118. Traffic tie-ups throughout the county lasted until late Tuesday afternoon.

Rural postal carrier Sharon Gregson said drivers became so incensed by the delays that she began to fear for her safety and had to postpone several pickups and deliveries. Many of the 375 mailboxes on her route are along a narrow road with no real shoulder.

“If I pulled off, people wouldn’t let me back,” she said. “People were so upset they were just uptight and impatient, yelling and honking. It became such a safety hazard I had to turn around and come back.”

By 3 p.m., freeway traffic was reopened in the northbound lanes. But the backup was hardly relieved. Three lanes were squeezed into one at Central Avenue as vehicles were routed up the offramp, down the onramp and around the wreck. CHP officials said the backup extended into Los Angeles County.

Times staff writer Holly J. Wolcott contributed to this story.