Screen capture, Courtesy ABC7 Eyewitness News

(August 8, 2005, updated 2:45 p.m.) -- An overturned tanker on the transition road from the northbound 710 to the southbound 405 caused a fuel spill sending red dye diesel fuel into the L.A. river and a storm drain.

The accident took place at the height of the Monday morning rush hour...at about 7:07 a.m.

LBFD Public Information Officer Capt. Jim Arvizu told LBReport.com that each trailer carried 3,600 gallons of red dye diesel fuel...and the front trailer rolled over, spilling the diesel product at a rate of about 15-25 gallons per minute.

Capt. Arvizu said it's estimated that no more than 500 gallons got into the storm drain; the rest was diverted into two collection trucks quickly placed on scene, one on the transition road and another below to collect the runoff.

He said some diesel product got into the L.A. River, but Ocean Blue (a clean up firm) quickly set up operations in the area to contain it. Because diesel fuel has a specific gravity less than water, it floats to the top, enabling the firm to put what looks like big paper cloths in the river to basically soak it up, Capt. Arvizu said.

[update] And additional good news at midafternoon: A CA Dept. of Fish & Game spokesman said he was informed that the diesel fuel that went into a storm drain led to a pump station...where it can now be disposed of. Fish & Game said they'll continue to keep a watch out for any consequences but its spokesman added that LBFD "did a really good job handling the spill so it could be cleaned up." [Further on this as we receive it. End update]

Multiple agencies responded: CHP, LBFD, L.A. County Fire, CA Dept. of Fish and Game and U.S. Coast Guard.

Screen capture, Courtesy ABC7 Eyewitness News

CHP told LBReport.com that no one was trapped or (apparently) injured...including a person in the vehicle lodged underneath the back of the big rig.

The 710 was closed in both directions for several hours and the 405 was also a mess.

And as the final how do you do, another truck accident took place at about 11:37 a.m. on the northbound 605 freeway just south of Carson St...where an overturned big rig spilled a load of chilli peppers onto the freeway.

Nobody was injured but (again) the freeway was closed for a time and traffic was a mess.