Truck careens down Park Avenue, destroys garage

A large dump truck carrying a load of dirt rolled and crashed into a house on Park Avenue Tuesday morning about 10:30 a.m.

Fire Captain Tom Christopher said the driver of the truck escaped with only minor injuries, but the truck and the garage it hit were destroyed. The truck’s dirt payload was dumped on the street in the crash.

Some of the truck’s 70 gallons of diesel fuel spilled on the street as well. Laguna Beach’s senior environmental specialist Will HoIoman said the spill was contained so as not to reach the city storm drains and then the ocean.

Dee Whitaker, one of the residents of the house above the garages that were destroyed, said she heard the truck coming and followed by the collision.

“It was a terrible jolt,” Whitaker said.

The house escaped major damage — aside from the garage. Whitaker’s just glad no one was seriously hurt.

“When I saw it I thought ‘oh Lord, he can’t be alive,’” Whitaker said.

She said emergency crews helped the driver out of the back window of the destroyed truck.

The crash snarled traffic on Park Avenue until city work crews cleared the road around 5 p.m.