Highway 99 north of Chico back open after big rig crash

Highway 99 north of Chico has reopened in both directions after a crash involving a semi-truck early Tuesday morning.

On the cause of that fire.## new at noon ... highway 99 is back open after a huge wreck north of chico this morning.

The crash happened roughly just north of keefer road.

That's where we find action news now reporter jafet serrato... jafet you have been following this story all morning... what happened?

Linda - the c-h-p says one driver rear ended the other... causing a huge mess.

I spoke with a homeowner here who says this area is a trouble- spot for crashes.

(nats: beep) a wreck between a tractor and big rig shut down highway 99 just north of chico for hours tuesday morning.

(tony luis:) "my wife thought it was thunder."

Officers say the big rig going north hit the tractor from behind - pushing it off the highway.

(standup:) "the force of the crash was so strong it ripped this tire off and threw it across the highway."

It also knocked the big rig onto its side.

(tony luis:) "sometimes you'll have a couple in a year then you won't have them for another year or two."

Tony luis lives right next door.

Luis says safety improvements in this road are a lost cause.

(tony luis:) "not much they can do it's a major highway.

You can't really put a stoplight here or anything that would probably make things worse."

Luis says the highway might have a bad reputation but the love of his neighborhood keeps him put.

"you tell people i live in keefer, they go 'oh i'd like to live on keefer its a nice place to live.'

Our neighbor across the street is wonderful."

Traffic was stalled for almost seven hours.

The c-h-p says the big rig driver may not have seen the tractor at the time of the crash.

Live in butte county jafet serrato action news now coverage you can count on!

The drivers were both taken to the hospital - we are working to