Truck Driver Killed When Bridge Beam Smashes Into Cab
DEL MAR, Calif. — A truck driver was crushed to death here Wednesday when his crane rig clipped the underpinnings of a bridge under construction on Interstate 5, sending a 10-ton steel beam crashing into the truck cab.
Traffic on the freeway--the northbound lanes of which were closed for 90 minutes--backed up for miles.
The driver of the truck, Leslie Wayne Bell, 41, of San Diego, was heading north when his rig failed to clear the bridge at Del Mar Heights Road. The boom at the rear of the rig hit the northernmost of 14 supporting beams.
The 75-foot-long beam slid down the boom, scraping the roof of a Volkswagen, and smashing into the truck’s cab, killing Bell instantly.
The crane rig, owned by Marco Crane & Rigging Co. from San Diego, Phoenix and Tucson, was in the slow lane of the four-lane freeway when the 1:30 p.m. accident occurred. The rig was not involved in the construction project.
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