Updated, Thursday, 11:24 a.m.:
The California Highway Patrol seeks the public’s assistance in identifying the driver of a black sedan who may have caused a massive traffic back up on Highway 101 in Mountain View Wednesday (Aug. 14) by cutting off a sanitation truck that then flipped over the center divide and spilled sewage onto the roadway. No one was injured in the incident, which nearly spanned the entire highway and clogged traffic for hours – including during the afternoon commute.
“If anyone was in the area and they have dash cams, anything that might have seen it that maybe got a plate, then we can actually go talk to the driver, see what happened,” California Highway Patrol Officer Art Montiel said.
The CHP cited the driver of the NORCAL Portable Services sanitation truck, Valentino Albino Angeles-Cruz, 45, of San Jose, and a second NORCAL driver who appeared on scene after the accident, for driving vehicles beyond their driver’s license classification, according to Montiel. The company, which rents portable restrooms for construction projects and events throughout the Bay Area, will likely be fined for the violations.
The accident took place at 12:26 p.m. just south of the San Antonio Road overpass. Angeles-Cruz told officials that the driver of a black sedan traveling in the third northbound Highway 101 lane cut him off as he traveled at 55 mph in the fifth northbound lane, Montiel said. Presumably, the sedan driver made a last-second decision to dart for an exit ramp. The truck veered right, struck yellow impact attenuators on the right shoulder, lost control and traveled across five lanes of traffic to strike a white car before flipping over the center highway divide. Most of the truck landed in the southbound traffic lanes, with the cab resting on the center divider. The driver of the sedan left the scene before emergency officials, including from the Mountain View and Palo Alto fire departments, arrived.
“If we don’t get any tips on this ‘black sedan’ we may eliminate it completely since we don’t know if there actually was a black sedan that caused him to lose control or if there was another reason…either way, it’d be great if motorists that may have been in the area could corroborate his story,” Montiel wrote in an email to the Town Crier Thursday.
At least some of the sewage contained within Angeles-Cruz’s 1,000-gallon capacity truck flowed onto the southbound traffic lanes – as did gasoline – Montiel said. CalTrans employees vacuumed up the sewage and used an absorbent material to suck up the fuel spill. By 4 p.m., a tow truck had righted the sanitation truck and moved it to the side of the highway, but traffic was snarled on the highway for miles north of the scene, as far south as the Highway 85 interchange and on surface streets for hours.
Montiel described the lack of injuries from the accident as “crazy.”
“There were no injuries and nobody was hit on the southbound lanes,” he said. “You can imagine traffic’s going 65, 70 miles an hour and somehow they managed to avoid it.”
Report any tips about the accident to CHP at 369-6261. Ask for Officer George Her or his voicemail.
