Cemented commute

A fully loaded cement truck barreled out of control down Newport Coast Drive and overturned, spilling cement and fuel across three lanes of Pacific Coast Highway during rush hour Thursday afternoon.

The driver, a 39-year-old Los Angeles man, told police the truck’s brakes failed near the bottom of the steep hill.

This is the fourth serious accident since July 2004 involving a cement truck on Newport Coast Drive.

The driver was uninjured, but a passenger who was not wearing a seat belt and was sitting on a milk crate in the truck’s cab had moderate injuries and was taken to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, officials said.

“The injuries could have been a lot worse,” Newport Beach Fire Battalion Chief Dave Mais said.

The truck was carrying 10 yards of cement down Newport Coast Drive at 4:08 p.m. when the driver said the brakes failed near the bottom of the hill, Newport Beach Police Officer David Darling said. When he knew the brakes weren’t working properly, the driver shifted into the lowest gear possible before making a right-hand turn onto Pacific Coast Highway. The truck rolled onto its side and skidded across three lanes of traffic. It didn’t hit any cars, Darling said.

Three lanes of northbound Pacific Coast Highway at Newport Coast Drive were littered with glass, wet cement and pools of diesel fuel that had leaked from the truck’s gas tank. The truck, with a dented cement tank and smashed cab, lay on its side for more than two hours while city crews cleaned up the mess.

Several hundred feet of northbound Pacific Coast Highway was blocked off for more than an hour as police rerouted traffic up Newport Coast Drive.

Police and firefighters were first concerned that cement and diesel fuel could flow to the storm drains and into the ocean, but the spill was quickly contained. Newport Beach city crews used sand to soak up any fluid spilled during the accident and will bring in a street sweeper to clean up the rest of the debris, said Mark Harmon, director of general services.

The driver of the truck told police he was driving between 35 and 40 mph coming down the hill, speeds that are too fast for such a heavy truck on a steep hill, Darling said. The driver was cited for driving at an unsafe speed, Darling said.

Police said they receive frequent complaints from Newport Coast residents concerned about the safety of the construction vehicles.

“Any vehicle that carries some significant weight is going to experience some brake problems at the bottom” of the hill, Darling said.