- Author
-
National Transportation Safety Board
- Title
- Highway Accident Report: Multiple-Vehicle Collisons and Fires, U.S. 101 North of Ventura, California, August 18, 1971.
- Coporate
- National Transportation Safety Board, Washington, DC
- Report
-
NTSB-HAR-72-4
July 6, 1972
44 p.
- Distribution
- AVAILABLE FROM National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Technology Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161. Telephone: 1-800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000; Fax: 703-605-6900. Website: http://www.ntis.gov
- Keywords
-
accidents
|
highways
|
automobiles
|
trucks
|
automobile fires
|
construction
- Identifiers
- construction fence; restricted shoulder; multiple-vehicle crashes; jamming of car doors; truck/car override
- Abstract
- About 4:45 p.m., August 18, 1971, a number of cars and trucks accumulated in both southbound lanes of U.S. 101, about 8 miles north of Ventura, California, following the disablement of a car with a flat tire and a minor truck/truck collision. The highway was adjacent to new highway construction, and the shoulder area was partially restricted by a wood-slat fence erected by the contractor to reduce the distraction to drives and to prevent dirt from blowing onth the highway. A tractor-semitrailer loaded with cabbage, gross vehicle weight of 74,600 pounds, came southbound at the posted speed limit (55 m.p.h.) and crashed into the stopped vehicles, crushing them together; fires erupted, and eight persons were killed in the crashes and fires.