A big rig flipped while rounding a sharp turn on Pacheco Pass
Road near Ferguson Road, sending one woman to the hospital.
A big rig flipped while rounding a sharp turn on Pacheco Pass Road near Ferguson Road, sending one woman to the hospital.
At 9:05 a.m., a tractor trailer traveling west on Pacheco Pass flipped onto its side on the shoulder of the road after making a sharp left turn to stay on the highway near the beginning of Ferguson Road, according to the California Highway Patrol. The crash occurred about two miles east of Gilroy.
Office Depot boxes spilled from the cracked shell of the trailer into the muddy shoulder as traffic slowed to get a closer look at the overturned truck. Dark oil streamed from the truck and mixed with puddles of rainwater that had collected overnight. Slick with rain, the roads were wet but it was not raining at the time of the accident.
Police do not believe wet roads caused the accident, CHP Officer Jaime Rios said.
“I think he was just going too fast,” Rios said.
The driver of the big rig, a 33-year-old man from Long Beach, paced back and forth next to the truck as he spoke into his cell phone. His passenger, a 37-year-old woman, was taken to Saint Louise Regional Hospital with complaints of pain to her head, Rios said. The driver was headed to Fremont from Buena Park near Anaheim – likely cutting over to U.S. 101 from Interstate 5 via Pacheco Pass, Rios said.
Roads stayed open until three heavy duty tow trucks from Marx Towing showed up to haul the big rig off the shoulder. While the tow company was working, CHP closed a short stretch of Pacheco Pass west of Ferguson Road.
