A fiery collision between a tanker and flatbed truck injured the truck’s driver and forced authorities to close northbound state Route 14 between Golden Valley and San Fernando roads for hours Tuesday as twisted metal, a wall of flame and boiling asphalt blocked the lanes…

    Hazmat crews and firefighters rushed to contain the 26-ton, 6,300-gallon river of molten asphalt that gushed out of a gash in the side of the tanker. Several mounds of dirt routed the mess, which flowed downhill, away from storm drains and into a dirt lot to be cleaned up.
    “(The asphalt is) still bubbling,” said CHP spokeswoman Wendy Moore more than an hour after the collision. “It’s hot.”
    At around 10:50 a.m., a flatbed truck belonging to Superior Sod apparently clipped a slow-moving asphalt tanker in the right lane of the northbound 14. The flatbed swerved to pass the tanker, owned by its driver, David Martinez, 55, of Tehachapi, Moore said. The collision tore the gas tank from the flatbed and punched a hole in the tanker.

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