Traffic came to a standstill on eastbound Highway 80 in Placer County near Nyack on Tuesday, Jan. 28 after six big rigs piled into the center divider and into each other causing serious injuries.
The first accident occurred just before noon east of Nyack when a truck driver lost control, hit the center divider and flipped. Two people were seriously injured.
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The first crash precipitated the second crash, which involved five semi-trucks and injured one driver.
Caltrans District 3 stated that the wet roads were to blame for the crashes, according to news reports.
Authorities called the hazmat team for 25 gallons of almond milk and oil spilled on the roadway.
Authorities turned traffic around at Baxter until the highway reopened at about 5:30 p.m.
A third crash happened a couple of hours after the original two, about 2:15 p.m., in the westbound lanes near Rollins Lake Road in Colfax. This accident involved another big rig and a passenger vehicle and blocked the right lane for about two hours.
Studies have been done by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to discover the top reasons for semi-truck crashes.
The Large Truck Crash Causation Study pinpointed several causes. American Trucker cited the study and noted that, “trucks traveling too fast—too fast for roadway, weather or traffic conditions— was a factor in 23 percent of the truck crashes … trucks traveling too fast for conditions were 670 percent more likely to be assigned the critical reason for the crash … .”The main cause discovered by the study, however, was brake problems, which attributed to 29 percent of the crashes in the study. The study concluded that these trucks were 170 percent more apt to be cited the critical reason for the crash.