HARBISON CANYON (CNS) - The driver of a tractor-trailer was killed Tuesday in an apparently solo accident on Interstate 8 near Alpine, authorities reported.
The man was headed east through Harbison Canyon shortly before 3 p.m. when he braked abruptly for unknown reasons about a half-mile west of Dunbar Lane, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The sudden deceleration caused the cargo the truck was hauling -- steel sheet piles, a type of heavy-duty interlocking materials used to construct retaining walls and other large barriers -- to forcefully slide forward across the flatbed trailer, smash through the back of the cab of the big rig and slam into the driver, CHP public affairs Officer Travis Garrow said.
The victim, whose name was not immediately available, died at the scene.
There were no immediate indications that any other vehicles were involved in the wreck, which left one of the two eastbound lanes of the freeway blocked in the area into the late afternoon, Garrow said.
