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200-Ton Engine Crushes Van With Woman Inside
Engine Being Delivered To Local Shipyard
POSTED: 6:11 am PDT July 26,
2007
UPDATED: 6:42 am PDT July 27,
2007
SAN DIEGO -- A nearly 200-ton Navy ship's engine rolled off a truck trailer at a Barrio Logan intersection Thursday and landed on two parked vehicles, injuring a woman sleeping in a van and rupturing a city water line. The massive diesel-electric engine was being delivered to the General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard, when it came off a slow-moving trailer in 2700 block of Harbor Drive for unknown reasons about 12:30 a.m., according to police and the AirForce Times. The engine, bound for a dry cargo/ammunition ship known in Navy parlance as a TAK-E, flattened a Dodge sedan and damaged a van occupied by a sleeping woman waiting for her husband to get off work. She was able to get out on her own and suffered only minor injuries, according to SDPD Sgt. Rich Nemetz.
The accident created a sinkhole in the street and broke a 16-inch main buried roughly six feet beneath the pavement, cutting off water delivery to the nearby shipyard. It took city crews about three hours to restore service to the plant, said Arian Collins, public information officer for the San Diego Water Department. Repairs to the crushed pipeline were delayed, while utility crews waited for a crane big enough to move the engine. That job likely will have to wait until Friday, Sgt. Nemetz said. Once the task is complete, it will take another 10 to 12 hours to fix the smashed pipeline, Collins said. Due to the interrupted water service, the shipyard sent home its first-shift employees, a crew of about 3,000, NASSCO spokesman Karl Johnson said. Authorities blocked off the eastbound side of the damaged road from 28th Street to 32nd Street to allow for repairs and debris removal. The closure likely will remain in effect well into Friday, Nemetz said. On Tuesday, General Dynamics, which owns National Steel and Shipbuilding Co., or NASSCO, announced it had been awarded a $100 million contract to buy advance materials for a 10th TAK-E. Three of the nearly 700-foot supply ships have been delivered and four are under construction as part of the current program. The 10th ship is due for delivery in 2001. According to the AirForce Times, the TAK-E engine weighs in at 172 tons.
Copyright 2007 by 10News.com. City Wire contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.











