Bleach Tanker Overturns, Catches Fire on 105

A freeway crash is one thing. A freeway crash involving a tanker full of bleach is a very different problem. That is what hit South Los Angeles early Saturday, May 9, when a semitruck overturned on westbound I-105, caught fire, and started leaking its load near Vermont Avenue. The result was a full westbound shutdown for hours and a hazmat cleanup that outlasted the flames. ### What actually happened? The basic sequence was fast and ugly. Around 3:42 or 3:44 a.m., a tanker truck carrying bleach collided with another vehicle on the westbound Glenn Anderson Freeway, just east of Vermont Avenue in the Vermont Vista area. Both vehicles overturned, and the tanker caught fire while leaking liquid onto the roadway. (abc7.com) ### Why did bleach change the response? Because bleach is not just “cargo.” It is a corrosive chemical, and once it leaks, firefighters and hazmat crews have to think about runoff, fumes, and whether the material is mixing with anything else on the road. That means the job is not simply tow the truck, sweep the lane, reopen traffic. The scene has to be stabilized first — basically making sure the fire is out, the spill is contained, and the remaining chemical can be handled safely. (abc7.com) The reports describe a liquid leak and a hazardous-materials style closure, which is why the shutdown lasted for hours. ### Where was the traffic hit? The hardest hit stretch was westbound 105 near Vermont Avenue, but the disruption spread backward into the Harbor Freeway connection too. CHP shut all westbound lanes and also closed the northbound 110 transition to westbound 105 during the response. That matters because this is one of the main east-west links across South L.A. and a key connector for people moving between the 110 and LAX-side corridors. (abc7.com) ### How long did it stay closed? A SigAlert went out at 4:14 a.m. and the closure lasted several hours. By later in the morning, CHP canceled the alert and reopened the lanes. So the worst of it landed before and into the early commute window rather than becoming an all-day closure — but for anyone on the road at that hour, it was the kind of shutdown that forces a full reroute, not a quick lane merge. (abc7.com) ### Were there injuries? The early reports focused much more on the spill and closures than on serious injuries. None of the main local accounts highlighted immediate major injuries or fatalities from the crash. That does not make the incident minor — it just means the biggest public impact appears to have been the chemical fire, the leak, and the traffic paralysis. (abc7.com) ### Why do these crashes take so long? An overturned tanker is the hard version of a freeway cleanup. Think of a normal crash as a broken machine in the road. A hazmat tanker crash is a broken machine plus a chemistry problem. Crews have to manage fire suppression, leak control, towing, and road safety in the right order. If they rush any of that, they risk sending dangerous material farther down the freeway or exposing responders and drivers. (abc7.com) That is the catch. ### So what is the bottom line? The big story here is not just that a truck flipped. It is that a bleach tanker flipped on one of South Los Angeles’s key freeways, turned into a fire-and-spill emergency, and temporarily wiped out westbound 105 traffic. The lanes are back open now, but the incident is a clean reminder that when hazardous cargo is involved, a crash stops being routine almost immediately. (abc7.com)