Two Galt men died on Tuesday, Jan. 28, when a big rig slammed into their pickup truck causing a chain reaction crash that involved a total of three big rigs. The accident happened on northbound Highway 99 south of Twin Cities.
Charlie Mosqueda, 20, and Antonio Mosqueda, 33, died in the 7 a.m. crash after a big rig slammed into the back of them. The force pushed the pickup into another big rig, which, in turn, pushed into a third big rig. One of the truck drivers suffered minor injuries, according to news reports.
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At the time of impact, traffic had slowed to less than 5 mph. The crash caused one of the box trailers to split open leaving candy box debris, oil and fuel leaking onto the roadway.
Multiple agencies responded to the crash, including the California Highway Patrol, Caltrans, the Galt Police Department and fire personnel. Officials shut down the northbound lanes for several hours and traffic finally began flowing around 11 a.m. The southbound lanes remained unaffected.
In 2018, 4,136 people died in accidents involving large trucks with 82 percent of the deaths being car occupants, pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists.
Passenger drivers share the road with approximately 2.8 million truck drivers so it’s not surprising that there are approximately 400,000 to 500,000 accidents a year that involve big rigs. In 2018, 11 percent of fatal vehicle crashes involved large trucks.
Big rigs typically do not have advanced warning equipment, such as a forward collision avoidance system, installed. These systems would alert the truck driver to an object ahead, and in some cases, mitigate impact. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) wants see these systems required in big rigs.