Home › News › Other News
126 reopened after pesticide truck crash
Photo by Dana Rene Bowler
Ventura County fire department Hazmat unit member Bob Welsbie (left) and Desi Rodriguez (right) inspect an over-turned truck carrying pesticides eastbound on Highway 126 Wednesday morning. The highway was closed east of Briggs Road for several hours. The driver of the truck was transported to Ventura Çounty Medical Center with moderate injuries. No other vehicle was involved.
Video
Truck overturns on Hwy 126Traffic stalled on Highway 126 after a truck carrying pesticides overturned on the highway 126. Watch now >>
STORY TOOLS 
More from Other NewsTwo people were injured and traffic backed up for miles this morning after a tractor trailer crashed on Highway 126 eastbound near Santa Paula.
The truck was carrying pesticide from Oxnard-based San Miguel Produce to a farm near Santa Paula when the driver lost control and the truck overturned just east of Briggs Road about 8:30 a.m., authorities said. None of the pesticide leaked from the truck.
The vehicle's trailer began to swerve near the Briggs Road overpass. When the driver tried to correct the motion of his vehicle, the truck began to swerve more and more until it flipped over about one-quarter mile later, said Officer Jim Ryland of the California Highway Patrol.
It was not clear what caused the vehicle to swerve in the first place, said Efren Lara, a San Miguel Produce employee who was a passenger in the vehicle.
"It happened so quickly," he said.
The vehicle came to rest upside down, sprawled across the roadway with its cab crushed and its underbelly pointing toward the sky.
The driver, whose name was not available, suffered a fractured arm and a leg injury in the crash, and Lara sustained a mild injury to his hand.
Lara was able to get out of the damaged vehicle on his own, and passersby helped the driver escape, Ryland said.
The driver was transported to the Ventura County Medical Center for treatment.
A hazardous materials team from the Ventura County Fire Department checked the scene and concluded that no dangerous substances leaked onto the roadway, said Capt. Barry Parker.
The truck had a 2,000 gallon water tank and a 200 gallon pesticide tank, but no pesticide had been mixed with the water and the chemical tank was empty, Parker said.
The pesticides were being carried in plastic one gallon bottles stored inside a metal cage on the truck. Though the cage broke off, none of the bottles broke, Parker said.
The accident closed both eastbound lanes of the roadway. Traffic backed up almost to Kimball Road in Ventura and motorists alternated between a dead stop and a crawl as they inched toward the Briggs Road offramp.
Officials began working to move the tractor trailer from the roadway after the hazardous materials team finished checking the area about 11:15 a.m. Part of the roadway reopened at about 1 p.m.
Posted by stave1 on June 20, 2007 at 11:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It took 20 to 25 min for any emergency vehicles to arrive. If that was my family member I would be crazy mad. What is it with the emergency people in Santa Paula????
Posted by Whosaidwhat on June 20, 2007 at 11:41 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The wait was so long that people just got off their cars...
Posted by star on June 20, 2007 at 11:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Where did you get that info from? Do you make things up to be mad about?
Posted by Whosaidwhat on June 20, 2007 at 12:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
star= who is your comment for? I got my info from nobody, I was there myself.
Posted by Angelito on June 20, 2007 at 12:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Please use foothill road, or Santa Paula Street as alternate routes. Otherwise the traffic delay will be over one hour. Foothill road is empty as of 12:40 p.m. and it will lead to peck road, where there is an onramp to the freeway.
Telegraph Rd is alraedy very congested and takes about 1/2 hour between briggs to peck, plus time spent on freeway.
Posted by NothingButTheTruth on June 20, 2007 at 12:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
If you REALLY want to know "WHY" it took 20-25 minutes for ambulance/fire to arrive, why don't you just CALL them; ask them, then TELL commenters???
Posted by sydney on June 20, 2007 at 1:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)
the most probable reasons are (1) traffic congestion, and (2) they just can't rush into a hazardous materials spill for safety reasons, and (3)it wasn't easy to access.
Posted by yellocobra01 on June 20, 2007 at 2:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Why is Santa Paula to blame for slow emergency personnel response time? You don't even know what agency was called and were they were dispatched from....
Posted by Daisy150 on June 20, 2007 at 2:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Stave1... if I'm not mistaken, that is Ventura County's area. So don't go asking what is with the emergency people in Santa Paula... get the facts straight!! Santa Paula has some great emergency personell that deserves more appreciation than they receive!!
Posted by Whosaidwhat on June 20, 2007 at 2:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
So does anybody care if the driver and passanger are ok? Of if anything dangerous was spilled?
Posted by jane_doe on June 20, 2007 at 3:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I got on the 126 at approx. 12 noon, I didn't reach Briggs Rd. until 1:45pm it was ridiculous!!!
Posted by sydney on June 20, 2007 at 3:31 p.m.
(This thread was removed by the site staff.)
Posted by Whosaidwhat on June 20, 2007 at 4:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
lol...sydney! Did you have some pico de gallo for lunch or what?? Someone's a bit grouchy..
Posted by stave1 on June 20, 2007 at 6:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Everyone is a bit touchy today. Course a long hot ride in the car with pollutants can do that to you. Actually, I happened on the accident before any emergency personell arrived. (I have not seen anything to make me grateful for our law enforcement or emergency personell since I have lived in this town 10 yrs) The emergency people did respond from Santa Paula because I was a a gas station filling my car up with gasss. I would say it was 20 to 25 min. between the two. point A to point B.
Posted by stave1 on June 20, 2007 at 8:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Greetings Doc, When I went through there were no emergency vehicles there, or on their way. no lights no sirens. More is done for someone who is already deceased.
Posted by stave1 on June 20, 2007 at 8:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yes of course, I did happen to see the EMS Supervisor truck which is white, with big writing on it pass me after I was already filling my car up. Perhaps, we have several supervisors????
Posted by Nosmo_King on June 20, 2007 at 8:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Wow I just read about this. the County has a station just off of briggs road, where were they? The photo shows the truck off the roadway, why close it down? good grief these weren't fumigants going into the air to breath. just pesticide in bottles...unbroken. We pay these people enough and all they do is shut down a freeway AFTER the good samaritans pull the guy out. Marines in Iraq would have cleaned up a bomb mess faster than this...but they do get paid alot more..Lol
Posted by NothingButTheTruth on June 20, 2007 at 10:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Sounds like a lot of unhappy campers at being stuck in traffic. Yes, Ventura County Fire has a station at Telegraph & Olive Road, but they MAY have been on another call and Santa Paula City Fire might have responded as the "covering" unit. Can you imagine what old SR 126 (a.k.a. Telegraph Road) was like BEFORE the freeway. And just because passing motorists helped people out of the vehicle doesn't mean fire personnel should not have exerted caution.
AND here's food for thought: I'd bet the various locations given for the crash came from motorists on their CELL phones reporting erroneous locations to the 9-1-1 operators!!! Some of you are OBVIOUSLY frustrated by being stuck in traffic, though not fun, is a fact of life. Yes, as the situation stabilizes fire trucks should either park on the shoulder or if not needed leave the scene. Traffic could then creep by in two lanes... which they'd do as they played "lookie-loo" anyway! Everyone needs to take time to think what is best for all concerned: drivers and emergency responders.
Article discussions on this site are to support community debates of issues related to our stories and editorials.
Discussions should not stray from the subject of the story or editorial.
We do not allow the following:
- Posts that degrade others on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or disability.
- Disparaging remarks, abusive language or obscene comments.
- Threats, whether obvious or veiled.
We reserve the right to delete threads and/or ban users for these or other reasons we deem necessary.
Opinions are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.
There are 17 comments to this article.
Comments are found beneath the Yahoo! ad below.