Sacramento man dies in truck crash, spilling packages

DANVILLE (KTVU & BCN) - The driver of a box truck that overturned on Interstate Highway 680 in Danville early Monday morning has died, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The crash was reported at 3:24 a.m. on the southbound side of the highway at West El Pintado Road.

The driver of the two-axle box truck, a 26-year-old man from Sacramento, apparently struck an abandoned Ford minivan on the right shoulder of the highway, causing the truck to overturn and hit a large metal pole, the CHP said.

Emergency crews arrived to find the man trapped inside the truck. They were able to extract him from the wreckage and take him to the hospital, where he died, according to the CHP.

The cause of the collision is under investigation, but the CHP said it doesn't appear that drugs or alcohol were a factor.

Augustine Ruiz, a spokesman for the US Postal Service, said the truck was a FedEx consolidator, which is a third-party contractor that carries packages for FedEx to transport to the USPS, which then delivers the packages to homes and businesses. The truck originated in Sacramento and was bound for San Jose, which the accident occurred, Ruiz said

Many of the packages and boxes in the truck spilled across the highway during the crash, which closed three of the four lanes and snarled the morning commute for hours.

Ruiz said the USPS retrieved the packages after the incident and they were taken to the San Jose mail processing facility so they could be delivered to the customers who were expecting them. Some of the packages that were considered too damaged for deliver were turned to FedEx for collection, Ruiz said.

At a little after 9 a.m., the CHP reported that all lanes except the far right lane were reopened.

Drivers were being advised to use alternative routes and avoid the area.

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call the Contra Costa CHP at (925) 646-4980.