Unsafe Intersection Needs Fixing

The March 8 fatal accident involving a runaway truck on Imperial Highway in Anaheim Hills provides a case study in many facets of safety for trucks passing through neighborhoods.

In the aftermath of resident protests, the city vows improvements in a dangerous intersection. Any of a number of early proposals to slow down trucks and enforce weight and speed limits would be a positive step. The city has been late in addressing these concerns, given past indications of danger at the site. Better now than never for action.

Further, questions about how existing violations for the truck company and the driver could go unattended invite more rigorous enforcement in the future on all area roads.

It appears that the perilous intersection at Imperial and Nohl Ranch Road previously has been labeled too easily as safe if only drivers will obey posted limits, providing a kind of false comfort zone of safety. The highway is steep and dangerous.

There were 50 accidents there between 1995 and 2000, and 39 people injured. In August, a trucker somehow managed to divert his runaway truck from a serious accident only through skillful driving and steely nerves.

At the intersection is a public park. Also, an elementary school and a high school are in the area. This area seems ill-suited as currently configured for heavy truck traffic without significant redesign and stiffer enforcement.

There also are concerns about the company, the truck and the driver in the accident earlier this month.

The truck reportedly was exceeding the posted limits, and it weighed more than four times the 6,000-pound limit set for the site by the city. The company that owns it previously had been cited by the state for not maintaining the emergency braking system on its trucks and for not making sure its drivers had proper licenses. Moreover, the truck had been cited three months earlier for brake problems.

CHP reports showed that the stopping system of company trucks had been a problem before, with one vehicle completely lacking an operable emergency brake system. The license of the driver in the crash expired last year.

This combination of safety flaws and unattended problems produced a deadly result when the truck went out of control, crossed the median and killed an optometrist going in the opposite direction. Twelve vehicles were involved.

This accident should lead to improvements at the intersection and better enforcement all around.