Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Deputy Sheriff Kristen Tarabetz talks to truck driver Luiz Arias following an accident in which a traffic signal at Highway 9 and Saratoga Road was knocked down.

Semi knocks over traffic signal

Accident ties up intersection traffic

By Michelle Alaimo

A semi tractor-trailer, making too wide a turn, knocked down the traffic signal on the corner of Highway 9 and Saratoga Road at approximately 3 p.m. June 9.

"We were coming out of the bank across the street and heard the impact," Albert Marrero of San Jose said. "The whole back of the truck went up in the air and the post came down with it."

The driver, Luis Arias from Fresno, said through interpreter Marrero that he was trying to make a right-hand turn on a green light when a small red car cut him off. Arias said he slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting the car, which caused the back of his truck to skid into the traffic-signal post.

"The accident turned out a little better than it could have because I didn't hit the car," Arias, who works for his uncle's gravel company, said.

The car which reportedly cut Arias off did not stop at the scene. Because there are no witnesses, police said it is unclear if the car's driver started to turn on a green light, which later turned red before he completed the turn. If so, this would have meant oncoming traffic also had a green light.

Deputy Sheriff Kristen Tarabetz, the officer on the scene, said Arias was at fault because he was trying to make a turn that his truck couldn't make. She added that he should have taken the service road, as the other truck in his party did, or gone straight until he found a place to turn around. Although there are no signs at the intersection warning trucks not to turn there, Tarabetz said that it was the truck driver's responsibility to know that his truck was too long to make the turn.

Arias was cited for making an unsafe turning movement and also for no proof of insurance on the semi, Tarabetz said. The two trailers attached to the semi were insured.

Arias' truck blocked the entire southbound lane of Highway 9 for several hours. An officer directed traffic until the lane was cleared. The semi could not be moved right away because the signal, which was lying across the second trailer of the semi, still had live power and wires were protruding.

Caltrans said that the insurance company for the second trailer will be asked to pay for damages. The signal was back in upright position and working within 24 hours.

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