John Potter
Channel 2 News
A tractor-trailer rig crashed and burned while going northbound on Highway 395 in California, but it had nothing to do with the weather.
For now, it's a mystery. The Walmart truck-trailer, wrecked and burned out…the driver's body found inside. That driver has been identified as 62 year-old Clarence Carpenter of Los Molinos, California.
The spot on 395 30 miles north of Reno between Hallelujah Junction and Red Rock Road is not an accident-prone trouble spot, according to the California Highway Patrol. The department's Lacey Heitman told us, "The truck straightened out a curve in the roadway for an unknown reason, before he collided into the embankment."
The condition of the road and the tire tracks hold some clues. The highway was wet but not icy. The truck traveled off the highway for about the length of a football field. The tire tracks showed the driver did not attempt to stop, pointing to the possibility of a medical issue or the driver falling asleep. The CHP's Heitman said, "It's believed the diesel tanks had something to do with igniting the fire, but it was fully engulfed within seconds of the collision."
Nothing much remained of the truck. The wreck was still smoking, with a flare-up several hours after the accident. The fire danger could have been much worse without the Tuesday morning wetness and lack of wind. Chief David Junette of the Lassen County Office of Emergency Services told us, "I'm sure if this were summer, we'd still be trying to catch this fire to somewhere on top of the hill there."
The truck was carrying grocery items...bottles of water and sport drinks from what we could see. But even those are fire hazards in crashes like this. Chief Junette told us, "Anything will burn. There's water in there, but as those bottles heat up, the water dissipates and melts out of the bottles, and that plastic continues to burn on that bottle."
After being closed for hours, Highway 395 through Hallelujah Junction was down to 1 lane most of the day. Over time, the CHP's investigation hopes to find the "why" of this fatality.
