Truck Spills Load, Closing Freeway Exit
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A big rig spilled its haul--28,000 pounds of steel joists--onto a Garden Grove Freeway exit early Friday, forcing the offramp’s closure for almost 10 hours as crews worked to clean up the mess.
Driver John McFarland Jr., 50, of Fernley, Nev., was taking the northbound Beach Boulevard exit at 3:24 a.m. when the trailer’s rear wheels veered off the edge of the ramp, tipping the truck onto its side, said California Highway Patrol Officer Denise Medina.
McFarland was uninjured.
The load stayed strapped to the back of the flatbed trailer but had to be cut loose so that the truck could be towed, Medina said.
It took Caltrans an additional six hours to figure out how to clean up the massive load and haul it away.
The ramp was reopened about 1:30 p.m.
The joists were “angled and kind of a complicated load, a very heavy load,” Medina said.
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