18 Injured When Marine Vehicle Plunges Off Road

Eighteen people were injured Monday when a Marine troop carrier went out of control on a San Diego Freeway connecting road in Long Beach and dropped down an embankment onto a truck, authorities reported.

All 17 Marines traveling in the back of the military transport truck were injured, three of them seriously, when their driver lost control on the sharply curving road that links the northbound San Diego Freeway to the southbound Long Beach Freeway, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Todd Sturges.

The military vehicle went through a guardrail and into a ravine and, for a few moments, became airborne before landing on a flatbed trailer pulled by a truck on the connecting road.

The Camp Pendleton Marines sitting in the back of the troop carrier were ejected upon impact. Most of them landed in the brush and on the unpaved shoulder of the road, said Long Beach Fire Department spokesman Bob Caldon.

“I thought a 747 hit me. It just came from nowhere,” said Gerald Cullen, 46, who was driving the flatbed trailer truck. Cullen, of Bellflower, was treated for minor injuries at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and released.

Said Sturges: “It’s a very spectacular crash. It’s miraculous there were no fatalities, really.”

Fourteen of the 17 Marines taken to two hospitals were treated for scrapes and released.

Marines Bernard Street, 23, of Oceanside and Darren Booth, 21, of Salt Lake City were listed in serious condition at Long Beach Memorial, according to spokesman Ron Yukelson. Marine Gener Camino, 36, of San Ysidro, was listed in fair condition. All three suffered head injuries, Yukelson said.

The only people unhurt in the 11:39 a.m. accident were the troop carrier driver, Marine Antonio Morales, 23, and another Marine sitting in the front of the truck, officials said.

Morales told California Highway Patrol officials that he was unfamiliar with the area and did not realize the connecting road between the two freeways curved sharply, Sturges said. The Highway Patrol, which did not cite Morales, is investigating the incident.