Q. The Honorable Honk: Who gets billed or fined for huge spills like the one on the 5 Freeway at the Grapevine? Looked like rebar. Is it the trucking company, the driver or both? I would think the driver would be partially responsible for not making sure the load was properly secured. If so, would the driver’s license be suspended until the California Highway Patrol investigation was completed?
– Walt Horeczko, La Mirada
A. Honorable Honk – has a nice ring to it, yes?
Walt is likely referring to this:
The day before Thanksgiving, a semitruck with a flatbed trailer was speeding on the northbound 5, south of Grapevine Road, and lost control and dumped its load of 20- and 30-foot metal tubes, said Santiago Hernandez, a California Highway Patrol spokesman and officer who happened to be in on the investigation.
(The pipes, in CHP photos, Walt, sure do look like rebar).
Hernandez said the straps holding down the load looked pretty worn down, and added that the semi dropped a lot of oil as well.
No one was hurt, Hernandez said, but a half-dozen or so other vehicles suffered damaged, one in the front-end and others inflicted with minor woes. Those repairs, of course, should be covered by the trucker’s or his company’s insurance.
All four northbound lanes were shut down at one point, leading to congestion that went on for miles and miles.
“It was quite an ordeal that day,” Officer Hernandez recalled.
The trucker was given a warning, with his truck having a bunch of vehicle violations and put out of service and towed away.
The trucking company had to get a specialist out there to clean up the oil. As to the pipes, Caltrans workers removed them and the state agency was to send the bill to the trucking company.
“As far as I know, there wasn’t any direct major damage that had to be taken care of, so I think it was more equipment hours and labor hours that would’ve been invoiced directly to that company,” Christian Lukens, a Caltrans spokesman for Kern and Tulare counties, told Honk.
(Honk has asked Caltrans what the bill was for the pipe removal and will provide it in these confines if he can lasso it.)
HONKIN’ FACT: Even though the ol’ Honkster is a balding gent with a gray ‘stache, he still gets a kick out of keeping an eye on Santa’s whereabouts beginning on Christmas Eve. You can too, at noradsanta.org. The North American Aerospace Defense Command updates where Mr. Claus and his reindeer are while miraculously dropping off presents all over the world.
To ask Honk questions, reach him at honk@ocregister.com. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk. Twitter: @OCRegisterHonk
