A tractor-trailer loaded with frozen food hit a telephone pole
and jackknifed Monday morning on Highway 152, disrupting traffic
for almost 10 hours and delaying more than 50 Gilroy students from
getting home.
Gilroy – A tractor-trailer loaded with frozen food hit a telephone pole and jackknifed Monday morning on Highway 152, disrupting traffic for almost 10 hours and delaying more than 50 Gilroy students from getting home.
The crash occurred at 5:16am between Bloomfield Road and Lovers Lane, the California Highway Patrol reported. Both lanes of traffic were closed for about 15 minutes about noon to right the tractor-trailer, according to the CHP.
An average of 23,000 vehicles pass through that stretch of Highway 152 every day, according to the California Department of Transportation.
“It has a large impact on commuter traffic,” said officer Chris Armstrong, public information officer for the Hollister-Gilroy Area office of the CHP.
Keith Kingsberry, a 39-year-old Temecula resident, was driving a 2007 Freightliner westbound when he veered off the road while rounding a curve, Armstrong said. The vehicle hit a telephone pole. As Kingsberry tried to correct his steering, the tractor-trailer jackknifed.
Motorists were diverted onto Frazier Lake Road and Highway 156 as crews unloaded the trailer so it could be righted and the telephone pole could be repaired, Armstrong said.
Both lanes reopened about 3pm. Commuters weren’t the only travelers effected.
Gilroy Unified School District students who live along bus routes off of Highway 152 were affected by the crash, said GUSD Transportation Supervisor Darren Salo.
“The morning wasn’t too bad, but this afternoon the kids had to ride around for an extra hour,” Salo said.
More than 50 students from Rucker Elementary, Solorsano Middle and Gilroy High schools take the bus that runs along the Highway 152 route, Salo said.
Last school year, there were three crashes that interrupted the school bus route along Highway 152, Salo said.
“We try to communicate with (parents) as much as possible and we definitely communicate with the school,” Salo said.
