LA MESA, Calif. – The California Highway Patrol says two people escaped serious injury when a 5,000-pound steel pipe rolled off a big-rig trailer and smashed into a taxi.
Officer Brian Pennings says the truck was hauling the 50-foot-long pipe on an elevated freeway ramp in La Mesa, northeast of San Diego, at about 9 a.m. Friday when the driver lost control.
Pennings says witnesses reported the truck was going too fast on a connector between State Route 125 and Interstate 8.
The truck hit a barrier wall and the 8-foot-diameter pipe broke its chains and plunged 75 feet from the bridge. It crushed the side of a taxi and sheared off a passenger door.
Penning says the 47-year-old cabbie and a 73-year-old passenger had minor injuries.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox