DEADLY FREEWAY DEBRIS COMMON HAZARD KILLS 2 MEN.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

At 8:29 a.m. Thursday, a caller reported a 4-by-4 chunk of wood on the Foothill Freeway in Sylmar. Two hours later it was a metal bar on a freeway east of downtown, where a large box soon blocked another stretch of the same route.

As the morning wore on, calls came in about a mattress lying across two lanes of the Pasadena Freeway, a metal hammer in lanes on the San Bernardino Freeway and, in Castaic, four big rigs backed up, all trying to avoid some unidentified debris in the right lanes of Interstate 5.

All of them hazards that disrupt the flow of traffic and endanger lives.

It was just that kind of debris - a 13.5-pound coupling from a freight container - that claimed the lives at 5:30 a.m. Thursday of Alfonso Hurtado-Gonzalez, 40, of Arleta, and Juan Padilla, 34, of North Hollywood. The chunk of metal crashed through the windshield of the minivan they were carpooling in with four other men as they traveled on the Golden State Freeway in Atwater Village.

Padilla, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, and Hurtado-Gonzalez, who was sitting directly behind him, died of blunt trauma to the head, California Highway Patrol spokesman Alex Delgadillo said.

The driver and three other male passengers in the three-row van were not injured. Televised news reports showed the van stopped on the freeway median with a large, jagged hole in the passenger side of the windshield. Rush-hour traffic in the area was backed up for miles as police briefly shut down southbound lanes.

While little can be done to prevent such a freak accident, Caltrans workers and California Highway Patrol officers spend a good part of their shifts trying to keep the freeways clear and safe day and night. Enough debris is removed from Southland freeways each year to fill the Los Angeles Coliseum 11 feet deep.

``If you can think of it, it's been dropped on the road - camper shells, couches, mattresses, dressers, suitcases,'' said Officer Justin Snider of the CHP's Newhall station.

And while no regional statistics are kept, a study released in June by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that nationwide, roadway debris results in 25,000 accidents a year, resulting in 80 to 90 deaths.

``Although vehicle-related road debris crashes are generally less severe than other crashes, individual incidents can be catastrophic,'' Peter Kissinger, president of the AAA Foundation, said in response to the report.

``Moreover, many of the estimated 25,000 (debris-related) crashes can be prevented if truckers and motorists secure their loads properly and report debris that they encounter on the road.''

The most common debris on roadways are tire treads, garbage from waste haulers and lumber and construction materials.

In 2000, two Moorpark teens - Shane Malloy, 17, and Brooke Bronkowski, 14 - were killed when Malloy swerved to avoid a ladder that had fallen onto the Ronald Reagan Freeway. His Honda Accord went off the freeway shoulder and hit a tree.

Two months later, an off-duty Los Angeles Police Department officer suffered a broken collarbone when his motorcycle hit a video arcade game dropped on the Antelope Valley Freeway in Santa Clarita.

Shanan Whalen commutes from Tarzana to his Culver City office each day on the Ventura and San Diego freeways. He never knows what will lie in his path in a commute that runs 45 minutes to two hours depending on traffic - and obstacles.

``There's stuff on the road every day - chairs, mattresses, ladders,'' Whalen said. ``At least once a month there's something you have to swerve around. It can be scary because you never know what could be around a curve sitting in your lane.''

Whalen said he hit a crate once and dragged it for a while until he could pull over and jar it lose.

Snider of the CHP recalled an incident he worked in which a driver was hit in the head by a trailer hitch that dislodged from another vehicle and smashed through his windshield. A passenger held onto the steering wheel as the driver lost control.

``That's a 10-pound piece of metal,'' Snider said. ``What it shows is that it doesn't matter the size of the debris. There are a lot of variables; is it on the ground, or is it airborne? How high off the ground is it in relation to the vehicle that hits it?''

If an object is stationary, a motorist who hits it is considered at fault, even in high-speed traffic, Snider said, stressing that he didn't know details of Thursday's deadly accident.

``You're required to maintain a speed that will allow you to react to whatever hazard might be on the road,'' he said. ``If you're driving a speed that doesn't allow you to avoid hitting something in your path, you're driving too fast.

``The best way to avoid something coming off a vehicle in front of you is maintain a safe following distance.

``You need a space cushion so you can react to anything that might happen.''

Staff Writer Phillip W. Browne contributed to this report.

Patricia Farrell Aidem, [phone]

pat.aidem(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

A hole in the windshield of this minivan shows where a 13.5-pound chunk of metal smashed through, killing two passengers.

Nick Ut/Associated Press

Box:

FREEWAY DEBRIS

SOURCE: California Highway Patrol

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