Fatal Truck Crash Strands Commuters

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

The accident occurred shortly before 11 a.m. near the Central Avenue onramp, snarling traffic for at least 10 miles and sending plumes of black smoke hundreds of feet into the air. Side streets and California 118 were jammed for hours.

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

The unmanned truck rolled down the ramp and veered across an embankment into the path of a big rig.

“I was changing my shirt and I looked up and saw the truck driving away,” crew member Maika Pele said. “But the guys were still behind me getting the cones.”

The big rig swerved to avoid the truck and slammed into a Dodge pickup. 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 Dodge. “I got out. I ran.”

Authorities initially thought there were three vehicles involved in the accident. It wasn’t until firefighters extinguished the blaze that they saw a fourth, 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 not identified the victim by late Tuesday.

A passenger in the big rig, 36-year-old Timothy Allen McCarty, of Illinois, was treated at St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo 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.

Authorities are trying to determine whether the parking brake had been set on the truck, owned by Fillmore-based Super Seal and Stripe Co. No charges had been filed late Tuesday.

David Pele, a spokesman for Super Seal and Stripe, said 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 been investigated by Cal/OSHA 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 twisted metal and ashes, northbound traffic backed up at least 10 miles, CHP officials said. Southbound traffic was slowed but lanes remained open.

Frustrated motorists looking for alternative routes found themselves stuck in slow-moving traffic on Camarillo streets and the 118. Traffic tie-ups throughout the county lasted until late afternoon.

Rural postal carrier Sharon Gregson said drivers became so incensed by the delays, 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., northbound freeway traffic was reopened. But the backup was hardly relieved.

Three lanes were squeezed to one at Central Avenue, as vehicles were routed up the offramp, down the onramp and around the wreck. CHP officials said the commuter backup extended into Los Angeles County.

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Staff writer Holly J. Wolcott contributed to this report.