CHP investigates trucking outfit involved in two fatal accidents

CARSON CITY -- The California Highway Patrol, investigating a trucking accident that killed six people including two from Henderson last week, has expanded its inquiry to look at a similar mishap in Reno involving the same company and the same circumstances less than a month before.

In both cases the trucks, loaded with pipes, were rounding a curve when the nylon straps holding the load broke, sending the pipes careening onto the highways.

Last week a 1991 Freightliner owned by First Class Service Trucking Co., headquartered in Tracy, Calif., was making a sweeping turn on California Route 58 near Boron when its load of large, heavy pipes shifted and broke loose from four nylon straps.

Three concrete pipes tumbled onto the roadway hitting two oncoming cars. Manuel Vigil, 38 and Sandra Vigil, 51, both of Henderson, were killed in one vehicle and four Californians were in the other.

The California Highway Patrol is trying to determine why the straps snapped.

Chuck Allen, a commercial enforcement officer for the Nevada Highway Patrol, said Friday the California agency has asked for a copy of his investigative report into the Reno accident, which occurred July 7.

Allen, a nine-year veteran of the patrol, said his probe showed that one and possibly two straps broke as the truck drove off one freeway onto Interstate 80, called the Spaghetti Bowl. The broken strap had deteriorated and couldn't hold as the load shifted during the turn, he said.

The truck was 80 percent through the turn and the load shifted, dumping about 150 plastic pipes onto the highway. The truck, driven by Toby Deeter, rolled over on its left side. The patrol trooper quoted Deeter as saying that as the load shifted, the right rear of the truck came off the ground.

Deeter suffered only minor scrapes and his wife and their 3-year-old daughter, who were in the sleeper cab, were not injured.

The pipes scattered across the highway and forced closure of Interstate 80 for several hours.

The three-inch wide nylon webbing strap that snapped was "real brittle without much bend to it," said Allen. The truck owner was cited for having an "unsecure load," he said.

The accident, Allen said, could not be attributed to speed. A witness in a car behind the truck said both the truck and he were going 25 mph, the posted speed limit on the turnoff.

Albert Alves of First Class Service, declined comment Friday and referred all questions to company lawyer Robert Christian of San Bernardino, who shuttled inquiries to attorney Dennis Popka, also of San Bernardino.

Popka said it will be 60 to 90 days before the California Highway Patrol learns the cause of the accident. The company is also investigating, he said. "We need to know what happened."

Some possibilities, he said, include how the pipe was loaded, the material under the pipe, the wedges that hold the pipe in place or the strapping. He said the investigation could result in changes in the industry standards. There are no regulations now setting the quality of strapping to hold on loads.

Jim Alves, vice president of First Class Service, could not be reached for comment Friday. He had been quoted earlier as saying the straps in the Reno accident broke only after the truck turned on its side. The straps were ripped at that point and broke, sending the plastic pipes onto the highway. The patrolman said the straps never touched the roadway and it was the defective strap that caused the accident.

First Class Service had four accidents in the two years prior to July 31, 1999, according to a database kept by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Records show company trucks were inspected 120 times and in 51 cases were pulled off the road until safety corrections were made.

That's a record of 42.5 percent of the vehicles being classified as out of service, compared with the national average in 1997 of 25.1 percent, according to Department of Transportation figures.

The federal agency gave the firm a "satisfactory" rating based on its compliance record.

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