The fiery Interstate 5 truck crash that killed at least three people south of here has severed the state’s main north-south transportation artery for an indefinite period, authorities said on Saturday.
Officials guessed that southbound lanes could reopen as early as Tuesday but were unwilling to speculate about the northbound lanes.
The chain-reaction crash and fire that closed the freeway, which carries 225,000 vehicles a day, occurred on Friday night in a southbound tunnel used primarily by truckers. The tunnel passes under the main freeway, which is supported by the tunnel’s concrete roof.
Fire burned throughout the day on Saturday and explosions rocked the tunnel. Molten trucks that had been reduced to hulks blocked it. Chunks of debris and cargo, including produce, littered the road. A woman waited hopefully to learn if her trucker husband had been trapped inside.
The heat was so intense that firefighters and other officials could not explore the tunnel beyond its mouths.
They did not yet know the cause of the crash, how much damage was done to the tunnel walls and roof, and how long it would take for traffic to flow again on the eight-lane freeway overhead.
Commercial lifeline
Interstate 5 is of vital commercial importance, but detours and disruptions along its 1,381-mile length from the Mexican border to Canada have become increasingly common. Many have been attributed to steadily-increasing traffic and a steady deterioration of roadways.
Fire, police and California Department of Transportation officials spent the day trying to assess damage to the concrete but were hampered by a continuing blaze in the tunnel’s center, heavy smoke and high concentrations of carbon dioxide, particularly on the tunnel’s north, or uphill, end. They could not get very far past the mouths of the tunnel.
Investigators said they did not yet know the cause of the pileup, which involved at least five big-rig trucks and multiple passenger cars on the rain-slick roadway just before 11 pm on Friday. They said they had not yet interviewed survivors.
But one of those who made it out, trucker Tony Brazil, told Los Angeles’ NBC affiliate that he drove his rig into the tunnel and saw “an accident in front of me. I came to a stop, and they (other vehicles) just kept hitting me”.
