Bicyclist crushed by falling shipping container was Long Beach resident
A bicyclist who was crushed to death when a shipping container slipped off a big rig and fell on him on a street in Carson has been identified.
Robert Castorena, 51, of Long Beach was killed about 5 p.m. Tuesday when the container somehow came loose and fell on top of him as he rode on Santa Fe Avenue near Warnock Way along the Carson-Long Beach city border, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said.
The truck struck a railroad bridge north of the 405 Freeway, next to a shipping container yard off Santa Fe, and its cargo fell off, authorities said. That stretch of road is a legal route for truckers, according to Carson and Long Beach city maps.
The incident is under investigation by the sheriff’s department.
Accidents involving large trucks rarely result in death, according to data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Of about 327,000 police-reported crashes involving large trucks in 2013, 1% resulted in death and 21% resulted in nonfatal injury. Most fatal crashes involving large trucks occur on rural roads.
Single-vehicle crashes -- including crashes that involved a bicyclist, pedestrian or nonmotorized vehicles -- made up 22% of all fatal crashes and 14% of all injury crashes involving large trucks in 2013, the FMCSA said.
Staff writer Matt Hamilton contributed to this report.
For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna.
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