Tehachapi News

Westbound Hwy. 58 reopened after long delay

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A westbound semi tractor-trailer overturned on Highway 58 near Broome Road Thursday morning, Sept. 24, halting traffic and spilling a large cargo of glass bottles onto the roadway.

Lakhvir Pandher Singh, 35, was attempting to pass another tractor-trailer driven by Jorawar Singh, 43, when he lost control and overturned, said Ed Smith, California Highway Patrol public information officer.

Smith said Pandher Singh entered a left-hand turn at an unsafe speed while attempting to pass and overturned, striking the back half of the other trailer.

The accident occurred two miles east of Broome Road at about 9:00 a.m.

Smith said there were no injuries. Both drivers were from Fresno.

Westbound Highway 58 at State Route 202 was closed until shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday. Motorists had been diverted to Woodford Tehachapi Road to reach Tehachapi or to access Highway 58 at Keene Ranch, Smith said.

The truck was removed from the roadway at about 2:20 p.m, but lifting it from the pavement caused more of the cargo to fall out onto the road, lengthening the cleanup time, Smith said

The highway closure caused a backlog of vehicles in Tehachapi, including many semi tractor-trailers, motor homes and buses.

Cesar Flores said he was transporting flavored ice cream syrups from Decatur, Ill. to Bakersfield when he pulled over to the side of Tucker Road because of the highway closure.

Flores said a sign at a truck scale 20 miles east of Tehachapi told drivers to expect delays because of an accident, but didn’t inform drivers that Highway 58 had been closed.

“People on the radio kept saying all kinds of stuff, too,” Flores said. “I really don’t know what to expect.”

David Tarillo said he and his co-driver Miguel Orellana were scheduled to pick up produce in Gonzales — roughly 230 miles northwest of Tehachapi — by 8 p.m. Thursday. The two were traveling from Morgantown, N.C., he said.

“I don’t know if we’ll make it,” Tarillo said. “If we don’t make our pickups on time, we will be behind.”

Frank Laird, driver of an Amtrak bus from Las Vegas bound for Bakersfield, said the closure caused his eight passengers to miss a 3:45 p.m. northbound train. Laird said it was likely they would miss the next northbound train at 6:20 p.m., as well.

“It’s been a long day,” Laird said while parked outside the Burger King restaurant on Tehachapi Boulevard. “I can’t believe it’s taken them so long to clean up the road.”

Tehachapi resident Ryan Wandick said he waited for a Regional Transit bus headed for Bakersfield at the Mulberry Street bus stop starting at 1:50 p.m.

“I’m going to need to get myself some food here in a hot minute,” Wandick said.

Several of the restaurants along Tehachapi Boulevard and Tucker Road were filled with patrons, as the highway remained closed.

Kmart’s parking lot became a makeshift camp for travelers in mobile homes waiting for a chance to continue heading west.

“I was just trying to get home,” said James Young, who was traveling with his wife in an RV to their home in the Arvin area.

Young said they were on their way back from a vacation trip to Carson City, Nev.

The road closure also nearly kept Tehachapi's Friends of Recall from delivering signed petitions to the Kern County Elections Division office in Bakersfield.

The petitions were due by Thursday, Sept. 24, said Tim Trujillo, Friends of Recall spokesperson.

"We got all panicky," Trujillo said. "We were going to take Woodford Tehachapi Road, but about half the semi truck drivers in the world knew about that."

Trujillo said two volunteers drove a roudabout route to Bakersfield by way of Gorman to deliver the petitions. The drive took two hours, he said.