Truck crashes into bridge at Cal Poly
3rd of September, 2009
A 48-foot refrigerated trailer driven by Marcos Martinez of Bakersfield crashed into the Union Pacific railroad bridge located at Highland Drive and California Blvd on Cal Poly’s campus at about 9:20 A.M. Wednesday.
The truck, owned by SJT Trucking of Imperial, Calif., was loaded with carrots and was moving at only 2 to 3 M.P.H., said Martinez. He has been driving trucks for ten years, and for SJT for 7 months. This was his first time on Cal Poly campus. “Probably my last time,” Martinez said.
Butch White, a Johnnyboy’s Towing employee, was in charge of cleanup efforts. “The last thing we need is to damage the bridge or fiber optic cable,” he said.
A Sprint technician inspected the fiber-optic cable pipe, which runs along the bridge. It was undamaged. The bridge was also undamaged, and no trains were delayed. “Nothing’s been stopped; he crashed at the right time,” said Union Pacific Track Inspector Rick Carrasco. Cliff Bansickle, a Union Pacific bridge inspector, agreed, and declared the bridge fit for normal traffic and speeds.
The carrots were unloaded into a truck owned by Moises Nova, of Santa Maria, who took the load to its final destination in Salinas. With Martinez’s trailer lighter, the truck and trailer were backed up until it was safe to disengage the trailer from the truck.
The trailer was taken by Johnnyboy’s Towing to be salvaged. Martinez and his undamaged truck were dispatched to pick up a new trailer nearby and drive it to Salinas.
Pictures, all taken by me. Don’t steal.
Wow, you got some amazing pictures! I thinks it’s funny for some reason that the truck was carrying carrots. At least it sounds like everything turned out ok, things could have been much much worse.