At 4:40 p.m. units from the Gilroy Police Department and Gilroy
Fire Department Chesnut Station responded to an overturned big rig
truck near the intersection of Monterey Street and Luchessa
Avenue.
At 4:40 p.m. units from the Gilroy Police Department and Gilroy Fire Department Chesnut Station responded to an overturned big rig truck near the intersection of Monterey Street and Luchessa Avenue.
The driver was uninjured and on the scene. No one else was injured and no other cars were damaged.
According to police and fire personnel, the truck was headed north on Monterey Street, then turned right onto Luchessa Avenue.
“He said he felt the load shift, something snapped and then it turned over,” said GPD Sgt. Diana Mara, who took the driver’s statement.
The back metal hitch of the tipped rig, which was carrying pallets of stacked cardboard, was nearly twisted into a half-spiral.
“This is going to take a big crane to pick this up,” speculated Pat Stone, owner of Gilroy Trailer Repair at 6290 Monterey St. “(The driver) is just so lucky there’s not a car underneath there.”
Glancing at the 22-tire rig, Stone estimated its two tandem flatbeds were 28 feet long each.
Stone and his employees didn’t witness the episode, but they certainly heard it.
“It sounded like 40,000 pounds hitting the floor,” Stone said, making a demonstrative motion with his arms. “We knew there was a problem.”
If an average-sized car had been in the left-hand turn lane, he remarked, it wouldn’t have been good.
“The driver is really lucky,” he said.
Police said it would take at least two hours to clear the roadway.
