A truck towing a pre-fabricated house crashed Wednesday on the 210 Freeway in the north San Fernando Valley, forcing a road closure expected to continue into the afternoon.
"It was a bad dream, all slow motion," said Bill Barstow of Riley Transport Inc. "Nothing you can do."
Barstow and his partner were hauling half of the double wide home on the 210 near the 118 Freway at 10:30 a.m. when a wind gust blew the house over.
The pre-fab house was on its side across at least two freeway lanes.
"We were doing 50 mph. The wind was crazy and got caught and picked it up off the ground, and it was floating and it set it on its side," Barstow said.
The crash was reported near Paxton Street. Traffic was backed up to Osborne Street after at least three lanes were closed.
Nobody was hurt but the CHP had to issue a SigAlert, causing long backups."
"This thing weighed 37,000 pounds and some change," CHP Officer Eric Fan said. "Unfortunately we weren’t able to move that."
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The pre-fabricated home had been built in Riverside and was on its way to the Rodeo Mobile Home Park in Santa Cruz. The other half had been towed up north Tuesday.
Half of the home is 14 feet wide and 60 feet long, making it difficult to get it off its side and out of the way of traffic.
It took about 4 hours - but they finally got it.
"That was a big ordeal. We cross tied it and pulled it over with the wreckers. It was quite the job," Barstow said.
The tow company says this mobile home is a complete loss. It should be covered by insurance. It will be hauled to the nearest landfill.
