The windturbine that started spinning wildly on May 3 disintegrated two or three days later, according to the California Highway Patrol.

All that is left now is a turbine-less twisted tower.

The CHP closed Highway 58 for hours after it was notified that the turbine was spinning out of control on Sunday. The closure snarled traffic in the area.

The CHP closed Hwy. 58 between Hwy. 14 and the Monolith-Tehachapi Summit exit at 1:20 p.m. May 3 after learning that the turbine was spinning out of control and had already thrown off its cowling.

The turbine is located 1,400 feet from 58 at the intersection of Sand Canyon Road.

The CHP initially closed Sand Canyon to entry and exit by residents but "We ended up escorting people," Smith said.

The turbine belongs to the AES company and is one of the older derrick models that was built 20 years ago by Vestas.

The faulty turbine and its white blades frequently were spinning so fast they could not be seen.

The faulty unit was built in the 1980s and is much smaller than giant ones made today, said Meghan Dotter, spokeswoman for AES Corp., a global power company with North American offices in Virginia, which owns the 90-kilowatt windmill. She spoke with The Bakersfield Californian on May 3 via e-mail.

The turbine's brakes failed when winds exceeded 50 m.p.h., Dotter said.

The California Highway Patrol shut Highway 58 "in an abundance of caution," she wrote, "because the wind turbine was visible from the road."

Experts say the only way to stop such a runaway turbine is to wait for the wind to die down.

Several weeks ago, an AES worker suffered injuries in an accident atop a wind turbine.

Kern County Fire Department carried out a rescue operation that involved lowering him down the outside of a turbine.