ORLAND -- Two crashes on Interstate 5 last week underscore the dangers big rigs can pose for passenger cars, especially when truck drivers can't see the smaller vehicles traveling next to them.
On Thursday afternoon, Orland resident Ruth Cuffman was driving south on I-5 about 1 p.m., approaching two large tractor-trailer rigs hauling for the same company.
The truck farthest away from her suddenly moved from the slow lane to the fast lane, and the truck behind it, which she was then driving beside, attempted to do the same, apparently not seeing Cuffman's PT Cruiser.
She swerved left into the center divide, spun out, then struck several oleander bushes.
Cuffman fortunately wasn't hurt in the crash. The truck driver, Octavio Moreno of Ceres, continued on until he was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol near County Road 57. Moreno told officers he didn't even know he had forced the car off the road.
Investigators noted that Cuffman was probably driving in the trucker's blind spot when he attempted to change lanes.
