Hundreds of screws scattered across a Highway 99 overpass in Elk Grove left dozens of drivers with flat and damaged tires this week, sending commuters scrambling to tire shops that quickly filled up with customers. One local man took it upon himself to clear much of the hazard from the roadway by hand, darting between traffic lanes to pick up screws before anyone could figure out how they got there in the first place.
The Elk Grove Police Department sent officers to the area after receiving a call about the debris, according to the New York Post. Elk Grove began receiving reports of damaged tires from loose screws on September 1, per KCRA 3, which found screws scattered throughout the area near the overpass. Elk Grove Public Works inspected the overpass but reported finding no evidence of screws there, even as reports of damaged tires kept coming in from drivers nearby.
The Elk Grove Police Department said traffic was flowing normally despite the hazard, even as the Sacramento suburb experienced dozens of drivers dealing with flat and damaged tires. The cause of the screws on the roadway remains unclear, and it has not been determined whether the hardware fell accidentally from a vehicle or was placed there deliberately.
One Driver Takes Matters Into His Own Hands
A local man named David Irons ended up clearing most of the screws from the roadway himself. He said he was darting in and out of traffic lanes to remove screws, repeating the risky trip about three, four or five times to keep the road passable for other drivers.
The scale of the damage overwhelmed local repair shops. The Les Schwab Tire Shop normally completes 20 to 30 flat-tire repairs per day, but it ended up completing 60 flat-tire repairs in a single day because of the screw incident. One unnamed driver told the Post he found at least 45 people ahead of him waiting at a tire shop, while another driver had 27 screws lodged in a single tire and needed two new tires replaced altogether.
How This Compares to Past California Freeway Spills
Mass flat-tire events tied to loose hardware on California highways are not new. In October 2022, more than 30 commuters suffered flat tires along Interstate 405 near Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles after a box of nails or wooden blocks fell onto freeway lanes during the morning commute, an incident law enforcement attributed to unsecured construction cargo, according to PowerNation TV. Nearly a decade earlier, in June 2017, about 40 vehicles were stranded with flat tires along a 15-mile stretch of the eastbound 91 Freeway in Corona after nails and screws spilled across the lanes, forcing a four-hour cleanup, as reported by Patch. Just this past June, drivers in Visalia dealt with a similar spike in tire punctures from small metal spikes and screws scattered along municipal roads, a wave that kept local repair shops busy handling an unusual volume of work.
The Highway 99 overpass near Elk Grove Boulevard sits at a heavily used interchange. The California Transportation Commission allocated $1.6 million in 2022 for improvements there, including extending the storage lane at the southbound Elk Grove Boulevard off-ramp and building concrete median barriers, according to Caltrans. Elk Grove also runs Project Green Wave, a system synchronizing more than 100 traffic signals to cut cross-town travel times by 21%, which helps explain why a hazard at this particular interchange can ripple across the city's arterial roads so quickly.
What Drivers Can Do About Damaged Tires
The California Department of Transportation maintains the Highway 99 overpass and has said affected drivers can file claims for reimbursement. Caltrans requires information supporting damage reimbursement claims, and affected drivers should provide photos, receipts, and the exact location and time of the incident. Drivers can file a direct reimbursement claim for up to $10,000 using Form LD-0274, submitted to the local District Claims Office in the county where the incident occurred, according to AS USA. Under California Government Code and Caltrans administrative guidelines, drivers must submit that claim form and supporting documentation within six months of the incident, per the Ehline Law Firm.
Drivers hoping for a payout should temper expectations. An investigation into Caltrans records from 2020 through mid-2023 found that fewer than 4% of vehicle damage claims submitted by Northern California drivers to Caltrans headquarters were approved, according to ABC7 News, since the agency typically denies claims unless drivers can prove it had prior notice of the specific hazard. If investigators determine the screws were placed on the highway intentionally, whoever did it could face serious legal exposure. Under California Penal Code Section 588a, depositing nails, screws, glass or other hazardous objects on a public highway is a misdemeanor, but the offense escalates to a felony if done willfully with intent to cause great bodily injury, according to Justia Law. For now, with no clear answer on how the screws ended up on the overpass, Elk Grove drivers are left checking their tires and hoping the mystery hazard does not return.
