Two Truck Spills Snarl I-5 Traffic

Two accidents involving large trucks snarled traffic along Interstate 5 in south Orange County for several hours Friday morning and sent one driver to the hospital. The first accident was just after 7:30 a.m., when a big rig hauling a mobile home ran over a piece of metal, which severed the truck’s fuel tank, said Officer Denise Quesada of the California Highway Patrol. Diesel fuel covered the freeway near the San Joaquin Hills toll road, and an estimated 100 gallons spilled into a storm drain.

No injuries were reported, but a crew from the state Department of Fish and Game was called in to determine any environmental risk.

All northbound lanes of the freeway were closed for about 20 minutes. By 9:30 a.m., all but two lanes were reopened, but traffic was backed up to the San Diego County line. Crews worked into the afternoon cleaning up the spill, Quesada said.

In the second incident, shortly before 9 a.m., a mixer truck filled with concrete apparently blew a tire and overturned on the southbound side of the freeway near La Paz Road, Quesada said. The concrete spilled over two lanes of the freeway and covered about 200 feet. The carpool and No. 1 lanes of the freeway remained open during cleanup, but traffic at one point was backed up to Sand Canyon Road, Quesada said.

The driver, whose name was not released, was taken to South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach. Quesada said she did not know how badly the driver was hurt.