Cox Petroleum will have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in clean-up costs after one of its tankers crashed on California's Ventura Freeway and spilled about 6,000 gallons of gasoline into the ocean.

The company also will have to pay for fixing a freeway median barrier and regrading the freeway. It also may face fines from the state Department of Fish and Game and the California Highway Patrol.
CHP investigators suspect that driver Mark Hurtado fell asleep at the wheel shortly before 4 a.m. Sunday while he was hauling 8,500 gallons of gasoline from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo. He had earlier stopped to rest at the side of the road about 4 miles from the crash site. A CHP officer asked him to move, and shortly afterward he flipped over on the freeway median.
Hurtardo was trapped in the cab until a passing driver stopped, broke the window and helped him out. The crash closed the northbound lanes of the Ventura Freeway for 15 hours.