Cement truck rolls over while making turn

A cement truck rolled over early Friday at Pelican Hill Road and Newport Coast Drive, the fifth such accident in the area since July 2004.

The truck was heading south on Newport Coast Drive and rolled over at 9:57 a.m. while making a right turn onto Pelican Hill Road North, Newport Beach Fire Department spokeswoman Jennifer Schulz said. The driver and passenger in a pickup truck on Newport Coast Drive narrowly escaped injury by pulling forward at the last minute, Schulz said.

According to Newport Beach Fire Capt. Mike Ybarra, “If [the driver of the pickup] hadn’t hit the gas right then, we would have had fatalities.”

As it was, the back of the pickup was sheared off.

News of the crash had Newport Beach City Councilman Keith Curry calling for safety improvements at the intersection. He said he and Councilwoman Nancy Gardner will suggest changes at the Feb. 13 council meeting, though he’s not yet sure what they’ll ask for.

Suggestions could include re-engineering the right turn lane to allow vehicles more room to turn or decelerate, or restricting the types of vehicles that can turn there, he said.

“It’s simply an unacceptable level of safety,” Curry said.

No one was injured Friday. Medics assessed all three people at the scene and released them, Ybarra said.

The driver was not cited at the scene but an investigation was ongoing, Newport Beach police Sgt. Evan Sailor said.

Newport Beach police and California Highway Patrol officers were working together to determine whether any weight or traffic violations had occurred, he said.

CHP officials did not know late Friday whether the truck was over weight limits.

The truck was upright by noon. Two heavy-duty tow trucks lifted it into the air, rotated it, then set it on its wheels before the cement inside had a chance to harden, Ybarra said.

Beneath it was a pile of sand soaking up hydraulic fluid spilled in the accident. None of the spill reached storm drains, Ybarra said.

Pelican Hill resident Richard Demirjian said the accident backed up traffic on Newport Coast Drive, leaving residents in three developments — Pelican Hill, Pelican Crest and Montecito — temporarily unable to exit.

Initially, half the street was open, but fire workers closed off the intersection for about an hour to lift the truck, Ybarra said.

In September 2005, the California Highway Patrol and Newport Beach police said they would beef up enforcement, and held safety inspections on large trucks at Pacific Coast Highway and Newport Coast Drive.

Sailor said he knew of no recent joint enforcement efforts with CHP in that area.

Over a period of 30 minutes at midday, five more cement trucks went cautiously around the corner and up Pelican Hill Road, bound for the many construction sites in the area.

None fell.