A Hollister man and another unidentified male were flown to the
hospital with major injuries after their big rigs collided head on
at the intersection of Highway 156 and San Felipe Road Monday
afternoon.
Hollister – A Hollister man and another unidentified male were flown to the hospital with major injuries after their big rigs collided head on at the intersection of Highway 156 and San Felipe Road Monday afternoon.
Hollister resident Leonard Zapien, 31, was trapped inside the cab of his semi for at least an hour with major injuries while Hollister city and county firefighters, along with paramedics, attempted to cut him out of the wreckage. Zapien collided head on with another truck driver who was ejected from his cab and pinned under a collapsed traffic signal. The man, whose identity was unknown at press time, was flown to Stanford with a broken leg and other serious injuries, according to California Highway Patrol Office Chris Armstrong.
The roof of Zapien’s cab, which was wrapped around his trailer counterclockwise, had collapsed and pinned him over the steering wheel and control panel. Armstrong said Zapien was conscious and talking to emergency personnel while they were attempting to remove him from the wreckage, and would be flown to Stanford for medical attention when he was extricated.
Although both drivers suffered major injuries, Armstrong said they’re lucky to be alive.
“They’re both really fortunate,” he said.
The collision, which occurred around 2:30pm, closed the intersection for hours and is still under investigation by the CHP because witnesses gave conflicting statements about the crash, Armstrong said.
Zapien had stopped in the turn lane on Highway 156, and was making a left turn onto San Felipe Road, according to witnesses. The other truck driver, who had no identification on him and was unresponsive to police questioning following the accident, was traveling eastbound on Highway 156, at approximately 45 to 55 mph through the intersection, according to Armstrong. The two trucks collided head on.
Although Armstrong said a witness behind Zapien said the left-hand turn signal was green, another witness, a truck driver from Alabama, said the eastbound light was green.
“We can’t determine who’s at fault yet,” Armstrong said. “Everybody can’t have a green light, obviously.”
When emergency personnel arrived, the unidentified driver’s truck was lying on its side in the middle of the intersection and its cab was cut in half and lying in tatters in the field adjacent to the highway. The truck, which was hauling around 50,000 pounds of lettuce, collided with the traffic signal at the intersection, uprooted the entire structure and came to rest on top of it, along with the San Felipe Road sign, in the grass next to the intersection.
Zapien’s truck was also blocking the intersection, with him trapped inside. Although fuel was leaking from both vehicles, firefighters quickly hosed down the wreckage to prevent an explosion.
Alabama resident Anthony Blancett, who’s been driving trucks for nearly a year, was about 300 meters behind the unidentified driver and said the only reason his big-rig wasn’t involved was because he was about eight seconds behind.
When the accident occurred he said he and his wife, who was in the sleeper portion of the cab, immediately jumped out and ran to the drivers’ aid. The unidentified man was ejected from his cab and pinned under the traffic signal in the grass, Blancett said.
Blancett said in the short time he’s been driving trucks, he couldn’t recall seeing a wreck this bad.
“It’s trash compacted,” he said. “(When it happened), believe it or not it went to slow motion and all the parts flew across the road. Right then I woke my wife up and said, ‘Get the fire extinguisher.'”
Police diverted traffic onto Highway 25, Fallon Road and Fairview Road and still hadn’t cleared all the wreckage or opened the roads by press time Monday, according to police.
CHP Capt. Bob Davies said traffic was fairly light and there wasn’t much of a backup. However, clean up crews were busy unloading the approximately 50,000 pounds of lettuce by hand before they could tip the eastbound truck over to clear it from the roadway, he said.
“The sides aren’t very sturdy,” he said. “If they tip it up, the sides will tear out.”
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or
em*******@fr***********.com
