About a half-hour ago, a loud crash was heard here in Sleepy Hollow where Carbon Canyon Road meets Rosemary Lane, followed by the sound of a large semi heading westbound, though at the time any connection was unknown.
Walking down to that location, a homeowner along the state highway was seen moving around his car with a flashlight. A subsequent conversation led to the news that home video captured the semi taking the curve at high speed in rainy conditions, with the trailer sliding off the roadway and onto the home's driveway, clipping the car and pushing it into a fence. The truck just kept on truckin'.
While the video captured the incident, none of the truck's markings or plates were visible. It just so happened, though, that an oncoming driver, seeing the truck swerving, pulled to the side of the highway, witnessed the accident and then, noticing the homeowners rush out of their residence to see what happened, offered to track down the truck and get what information he could.
This Good Samaritan returned a few minutes later with the plate number and other markings from the hit-and-run vehicle and gave it to the grateful residents--joking that it might pay off to go to church, since he was heading back home from services. In this case, the use of the term "Good Samaritan" is very relevant.
Not more than a couple of moments after the Good Samaritan drove away, a Chino Hills police car pulled up to take a report. It'd be nice to think the truck will be found and its driver charged with a felony hit-and-run.
Naturally, this ties in to the recent advisory signs put up by CalTrans District 12, warning that vehicles over 50 feet in length should not drive on Carbon Canyon Road any further east than Fairway Drive or west than Old Carbon Canyon Road, because of the sharpness of the S-curves.
Of course, this is purely advisory, because Carbon Canyon Road is a state highway and an outright prohibition is unlikely to happen. But, concerns over the years about semis and other large trucks on the roadway do have merit, as witnessed by tonight's hit-and-run, though most large trucks seem to navigate the highway fine and there are far more smaller car crashes than ones involving trucks.
The video graphically showed what could have been much worse--the trailer not only left the roadway, but its outside wheels went down a small embankment leading to a gully that directs water from the upper reaches of Sleepy Hollow to Carbon [Canyon] Creek. The driver either was highly skilled or extremely fortunate because he could easily have jackknifed and made matters much worse for himself and others.
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