Runaway Rig Crashes; 1 Dead, 6 Hurt

A trucker with an expired license and a history of traffic citations barreled down a steep Anaheim Hills road when his brakes failed, setting off a series of collisions Thursday morning that killed one man and injured six other motorists.

Among the driver’s previous violations was one for driving a truck with bad brakes.

The 12-vehicle crash confirmed neighbors’ long-standing fears about the accident-prone intersection, where police have repeatedly snagged speeders and responded to two serious incidents involving semitrucks in the past few months.

Kenneth Michael Larkin, 53, a popular optometrist from Anaheim Hills, died at the scene. The truck driver, Anthony Robert Saiz, 47, of Lakewood, remained in critical condition at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

“These steep streets are horrible,” said Carmen Cutting, who has lived in Anaheim Hills for four years and walks her dog in the area. “It’s dangerous. Every day I see cars flying.”

The intersection was the site of two serious accidents in recent months involving commercial trucks at virtually the same location. Several more accidents occurred nearby, police Sgt. Rick Martinez said.

Each of the previous accidents could have resulted in a fatality because the circumstances appeared very similar. “We were very lucky on those,” Martinez said. “But today bad luck caught up.”

Thursday’s accident occurred at 7:30 a.m., just before parents began dropping their children off at a nearby elementary school.

Brian Rathswoht, 28, a campus security guard at nearby Canyon High School, said he heard the whole thing: “He was laying on the horn. Then it was a loud smash and bam!--like a train hit something.”

No students or employees from either school were injured.

The commercial truck, carrying gravel and towing a tractor on a flatbed, was traveling north about 35 mph on Imperial Highway near Nohl Ranch Road and blaring its air horn for about 30 seconds before it reached the intersection, witnesses and police said.

Police are planning to examine the truck as well as investigate Saiz.

His license expired in June 2000, and he has been cited seven times since May 1998 for various infractions, ranging from no proof of insurance or car registration to speeding and driving a big rig with too much weight, according to Department of Motor Vehicle records. He also has been cited for failure to appear in court for a traffic violation, as well as failure to wear a seat belt and running a freeway meter light.

In December of 1998, Saiz also was cited for having bad brakes, the DMV reported.

Peter McNabb, general manager of the Brea company where Saiz works, Peterson Brothers Construction, said he was unaware of Saiz’s expired license.

If the company knew, McNabb said, “he wouldn’t be driving for us.”

The company receives regular DMV updates about its drivers, he said. And its drivers must have better driving records than the DMV requires to stay employed. He planned to have staff review Saiz’s record to determine why the company did not know about the expired license.

The company requires its drivers each day to inspect the vehicles they are about to drive, including a simple brake check. The inspection reports for the truck involved in the accident and other maintenance records were turned over to police Thursday, McNabb said. The company also performs regular maintenance on brakes, he said.

The CHP inspected a sampling of the company’s 205-vehicle fleet, as well as maintenance and inspection records, in October 1999 as part of a biannual review. The company passed inspection, and another one is due this fall, CHP officials said.

“I think our record is really good,” McNabb said. “We have average insurance for each truck that is less than what I pay for my own car because of our driving record.”

But Larkin’s grieving father, Kenneth A. Larkin, 77, of Los Alamitos, said he was “numbed” by news of the expired license and blamed both the DMV for allowing Saiz to keep his license with so many citations and his employer for not monitoring him better.

“It’s such a devastating thing that happened,” the father said. “He shouldn’t have been on the streets. It makes me angrier.”

He vowed to campaign for change in memory of his son and “to get these people off the streets.”

Saiz was delivering or picking up a load of gravel in the area, where signs are posted warning truckers of the steep grade. A permit is required for trucks weighing more than 3 tons, said Anaheim’s principal traffic engineer, Alfred Yalda.

It was unclear late Thursday which agency issues the permits, but McNabb and Anaheim police both said it appeared Saiz was allowed to be at the site. McNabb said his company has a general permit to carry loads, but neither he nor city officials interviewed knew whether other permits were required.

Recent accidents at the site bore many similarities to the Thursday crash. In one, a truck lost its brakes near the intersection of Nohl Ranch Road and Imperial Highway, flew through a red light and then crashed into a construction ditch, police Sgt. Martinez said. A construction worker was struck and injured. In another incident, the brakes failed on a cement truck coming down Canyon Rim Road. The driver narrowly avoided crashing into a preschool. He drove through an intersection and hit an embankment.

As a result, police have cracked down on truckers, conducting several inspection points in the area. As recently as Monday, a team of seven officers cited 14 truck drivers and ordered two trucks off the road for problems including bad brakes and heavy loads.

On another inspection day, one truck was found to have so many problems that a mechanic was called to fix it at the scene.

“We are going to continue with the heavy efforts,” Martinez said. “Short of not allowing anybody to drive, all we can do is try as hard as we can and hope that we can catch these vehicles before things like this happen.”

In the Thursday crash, Saiz’s truck rumbled down the steep 12% grade, clipped a Toyota Camry and collided with the white sport utility vehicle driven by Larkin. The optometrist’s car rolled 150 feet down the road and slammed into three other cars.

The big rig jumped the median and headed into oncoming lanes before it flipped over and slammed into a row of cars that had been waiting for the light to turn green.

Saiz was taken to UCI Medical Center, where he was in critical condition with internal injuries and two broken legs, hospital spokeswoman Kim Pine said. Five others were treated for minor injuries at area hospitals.

Gravel, broken glass, torn bumpers and mangled cars were strewn across the street just moments before students arrived at Imperial Elementary School, where some parents were signing their children up for kindergarten and few students were in school. Teachers and parents directed traffic to the side of the campus.

It took nearly 10 hours for police to clear the scene.

Despite the complaints of neighbors and the history of accidents, Yalda said, city traffic engineers have reviewed that intersection and believe that 40 mph is an appropriate speed if drivers follow the laws. Saiz was reportedly traveling 5 mph below the speed limit.

“We already have looked at it many times--it meets or exceeds all the requirements,” Yalda said. “You’ll find oftentimes that truckers may not get a permit or have no business being there and are using it as a shortcut.”

But residents who gathered at the scene Thursday morning expressed outrage and called for even stricter enforcement and lower speed limits.

“I knew something like this would happen sooner or later unless somebody was going to do something about it,” said Lee Taylor, 66, a 26-year resident. “It’s pretty scary coming down this road.”

Joanne Bodor, 57, of Anaheim Hills agreed: “People speed down the hill. My husband takes Imperial Highway to work every morning, and he always has to put his car in second gear because it’s so steep.”

Larkin’s family also gathered at the intersection Thursday after learning of the accident.

“He constantly does good for other people,” Kenneth A. Larkin said, choking back tears. “I can’t believe this. He just told me his life was perfect, couldn’t be better.”