Caltrans Routing Errors Behind 3 Crashes

A fatal accident last week in Anaheim was the third crash since June caused by Caltrans routing errors that sent oversized trucks under low overpasses, state transportation officials said Thursday.

“To have three in a little over a month--that’s disconcerting,” said Jim Drago, a Caltrans spokesman. “What we need to do is get all of our people focused . . . [and] reiterate to them that this is a place where there is no room for error.”

The first two crashes, which ended a three-year period free of such mishaps in California, occurred last month at the same location, where Interstate 5 crosses California 44 in Redding. No one was hurt in either crash, though both caused extensive damage to cargo and roadway, officials said.

On June 8, a piece of construction equipment being hauled on the state highway slammed into the Interstate 5 overpass, taking out a four-foot chunk of concrete, said California Highway Patrol Officer Jim Ayers in Redding. Ten days later, logging equipment being carried by a trucker with Williamson Equipment hit the same overpass. Cars trailing behind were peppered with concrete chunks, shattering windshields and riddling the cars with dings and dents, Ayers said.

Both truck drivers had permits, approved by Caltrans, listing their routes and the loaded heights. Such permits are required for trucks that are more than 14 feet high in California.

“The guys were following all the rules and still hit the overcrossing,” Ayers said. “It’s not their fault. In fact, Caltrans will probably have to pay for the damage to their equipment.”

Janine Cantrell of Williamson Equipment agreed. “It was clearly Caltrans’ fault, and we’re still waiting on them to pay up,” she said. “Meanwhile, we’re out $10,000, our customer lost a week of time and the folks who were driving nearby are out lost windshields.”

A Caltrans permit writer in the Sacramento office approved both of these permits and has since been reassigned, Drago said.

Caltrans is now reviewing procedures in its San Bernardino office to determine how a similar mistake led to a far more serious accident last Friday. A 7,000-pound empty fiberglass tank was knocked off a truck that attempted to drive under an overpass near the junction of the Riverside and Orange freeways, killing a driver in a following car.

The overpass was two inches shorter than the load, although the truck’s route was approved by a worker in the Caltrans office who was responsible for checking for such problems. The employee is still working in the permitting unit, Drago said.

Drago said 31 employees in the state’s two permitting offices processed 188,263 permits in the year ending June 30.

While staffing has increased about 10% since 1996, he said the number of permits that must be processed has jumped 23%.

Drago declined to say if permit writers have to work faster because of the increase. “I’m not in a position to say yes to that,” he said. “We think one [mistake] is too many. We’re really striving for perfection.”

The trio of accidents resulting from faulty routing follows three years that were free of such accidents, records show. But at least one elected official, state Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana), wants a closer look at the problem.

Dunn said he is awaiting a letter from state transportation officials on the cause of last week’s accident and the frequency of Caltrans errors.

Dunn, vice chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, said he may call for a formal investigation of the state agency.

“We want to ensure that all our drivers out on our roads are safe,” he said.