Quick Take
The California Highway Patrol says it is still investigating the reason why a semi-truck gasoline tanker overturned on Highway 17 on Thursday morning but said drugs and alcohol don't appear to be factors in the crash that closed the southbound lanes and disrupted commutes for much of the day.
The California Highway Patrol says it is still investigating the reason why a semi-truck gasoline tanker overturned on Highway 17 on Thursday morning but said drugs and alcohol don’t appear to be factors in the crash that closed the southbound lanes and disrupted commutes for much of the day.
In a Facebook post late Thursday afternoon, CHP Santa Cruz said a 70-year-old driver from Salinas was behind the wheel of a fuel tanker that was towing an additional trailer. The truck was traveling “at an undetermined speed” south on Highway 17 near Sugarloaf Road around 6:45 a.m. when it hit the guardrail, veered off the road and flipped over on a dirt embankment.
California Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Israel Murillo said the driver sustained minor injuries and was transported to a medical facility. No one else was injured in the crash.
Fuel leaked from one of the trailers, causing the southbound lanes to be closed for “the majority of the day,” as crews worked to clean the fuel and remove the tanker, according to a Facebook post by the Scotts Valley Fire District.
CHP said it is investigating the cause of the crash.
Ken Keegan, who lives on Highway 17 in Scotts Valley, was sleeping when he woke to the sound of the crash. He put on his shoes, jeans and shirt, and drove down his driveway to see cars stopped on the highway. About 15 cars down the highway, he saw the crashed tanker and made his way to it.
Behind the bent and torn metal railing, the truck hung off the cliffside. People used branches to steady themselves down the steep hill and others shouted to the driver, who was still in the cab, to check on his safety.
“I cannot believe what I’m looking at right now,” Keegan recalled thinking. “‘Oh my God, that’s an 18-wheeler, full of gasoline, and it’s upside down dangling off a cliff. I mean, just insane.”
He and a couple other people who had exited their cars went down to help the driver get out of the truck. Keegan said the driver said he was 71, he had a cut on his head and appeared to be well despite the crash. They helped him up the steep hill to the road and Keegan asked him what had happened, but the driver didn’t respond.
Keegan, fearful of the danger of the fuel causing an explosion, left just minutes after the driver was brought to the road and just before paramedics arrived. He said he’s grateful the worst was avoided.
“We’re actually really, really, really lucky I believe that there wasn’t a ginormous explosion,” he said. “Because any spark, I imagine, would have set that off, and then the whole forest would have gone up, poof. At least that’s what happens in the movies, right?”
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