UPS Driver Killed in Big-Rig Crash on Cajon Pass

A UPS driver was killed in a big-rig crash on Cajon Pass. (Photo: Los Angeles Times)

A UPS driver was killed in a big-rig crash Wednesday morning after a speeding sports car hit the truck’s front wheel on the Cajon Pass, causing the semi to tumble down an embankment.

•   An out-of-control, speeding sports car veered across the freeway and crashed into the front wheel of a UPS big-rig on the Cajon Pass.

•   The collision unbalanced the truck, which slid off of the shoulder, flipped over, and plunged down an embankment.

•   The truck driver was trapped inside the crushed cab. He died at the scene.

•   The sports car driver sustained minor injuries.

The fatal accident occurred at 6:53 a.m., according to a report in the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

The California Highway Patrol said 32-year-old Nathan Hebert of San Bernardino was driving  a 2005 Nissan 350Z northbound on Interstate 15 at an excessive rate of speed.

Hebert’s sports car swerved into the center divider near Oak Hill Road. The vehicle then veered back across the roadway and crashed into the UPS truck’s left front wheel.

“It appears the (truck) driver tried to avoid the collision,” CHP officer Hope Maxson told the Press-Enterprise. “But they did collide.”

The impact sent the big-rig off of the right shoulder, where it flipped over onto its side and tumbled down an embankment, Maxson said. The driver, Norwalk resident Alfred Eclipse Jr., was trapped inside of the crushed cab. He died at the scene.

Hebert, who sustained minor injuries, told CHP investigators he had been cut off by a silver Toyota Camry, but that did not explain why he lost control, veered across the freeway, and crashed into the UPS truck.

Police did not make any immediate arrests, but the accident is still under investigation.

Three of the freeways’s five northbound lanes were closed after the accident, triggering a Sig Alert at 7:10 a.m. and snarling the morning commute for more than two and a half hours, according to the San Bernardino Sun. The alert was canceled at 9:51 a.m., the Sun reported.

Truck Driver Injuries and Fatalities

Motorists often presume that truck drivers are safe in most accidents because they are in such huge, heavy vehicles. But in reality, truck drivers also face a high risk of being killed in a crash, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

The on-the-job fatality rate for big-rig drivers is, in fact, almost 11 times the rate for the general worker population, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And the injury rate also is staggering — almost 63,000 every year. That’s the second-highest number of all U.S. occupations.

California Truck Accident Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully represented truck accident victims and their families for 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.