Train Service Canceled After Fatal Highway 118 Crash

[Update: August 12, 2018, 10:30 a.m.] It was not the driver of the tanker truck who was killed in the Friday-morning accident near Moorpark, but a 9-year-old boy, the Ventura office of the California Highway Patrol confirmed. The Independent‘s earlier report on the truck driver’s death was in error. A witness to the accident stated the boy had been in the vehicle turning off Balcom Canyon Road that was struck by the fuel tanker coming down the 118, and that a young girl had been thrown to the railroad tracks from the car. The young girl and her mother were taken to a hospital in Thousand Oaks for treatment. The fuel truck driver was shaken but alive, the witness said, who had been two cars behind the truck when the accident occurred.

The CHP report states the girl — a 7-year-old passenger in the 2014 Chevy Impala, which was driven by Veronica Viveros, 45, of Somis — suffered “life-threatening injuries” from being thrown from the front passenger seat of the car. She was not belted. The truck driver, Moises Macias, 65, of Los Angeles, was taken to a Camarillo hospital for treatment of moderate injuries. His fully loaded truck carried 8,000 gallons of gasoline; about 1,000-1,200 leaked from the tanks, which closed the road and railroad tracks for the day.

[Update: August 8, 2018, 4 p.m.] The accident that closed Highway 118 at Balcom Canyon near Moorpark occurred around 8 a.m. and shut down train traffic. The collision involved more than one vehicle, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, and California Highway Patrol officers are still on the scene conducting an investigation.

The spill sent fuel into the ballast, or sharp rocks, adjacent to the tracks, which must be cleaned up before rails can be opened, said Jennifer Bergener, head of the Pacific Surfliner line. About a half-dozen Union Pacific freight trains are also waiting for the tracks to clear, said UP spokesperson Justin Jacobs. Bergener hoped train travel could resume in the evening, but delays are expected on Saturday.

[Original Story] Coastal train service this afternoon was canceled due to a fuel truck overturning and leaking near Camarillo, according to passenger alerts from Traffic Solutions. Commuters were advised to take buses. A Clean Air Express bus will be at the Goleta station for 4:30 p.m. commuters and will take them to Santa Barbara, where Ventura-bound buses will be waiting.

This story will be updated as information becomes available.

Correction: The death of the tanker driver that was confirmed in the first update to this story was an error; the driver is alive, but a young boy died in the accident.