Fatal Bay Bridge Crash Triggers Massive Backup Through Morning Commute
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- One person was killed and several others were injured early Wednesday in a crash on the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge involving a Golden Gate Transit bus and a box truck, authorities said.
California Highway Patrol Officer Bert Diaz said the collision between the box truck and bus was first reported at 4:28 a.m. on the westbound direction of the bridge, just east of Treasure Island.
Three people were in the box truck, which rear-ended the bus as it was coming to a stop, Diaz said. One of the passengers in the box truck died from the collision and two others were transported with serious injuries.
Golden Gate Transit spokesperson Priya Clemens said three passengers on the bus -- a BART bus bridge en route from BART's Station in Oakland to the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco -- were transported to a hospital. Their injuries were not considered serious.
The force of the impact forced the box truck to overturn.
The crash resulted in the closure of three lanes of westbound traffic during most of the morning commute, leading to a backup that stretched several miles and prompting the CHP to advise commuters to seek other routes into San Francisco.
CHP spokesman Officer Bert Diaz said 40 gallons of diesel fuel had spilled and Caltrans crews responded to clean it up.
Many of those commuters chose to ride BART trains. Transit officials tweeted at 8:45 a.m. that its "operations control center reported an increase of about 4,000 riders through the Transbay Tube in the last 90 minutes due to the Bay Bridge back up."
BART officials said as of about 10:30 a.m., the increase in rider traveling west through the Tube had risen to 10,000.
BART officials had extra commuter trains on their lines to help carry more riders while the bridge lanes were blocked.
All westbound lanes of the Bay Bridge were reopened shortly before 9:30 a.m., nearly five hours after the crash was first reported.
Authorities are continuing to investigate the cause of the crash. CHP were interviewing the drivers and passengers of the vehicles to gather additional information.
"It's still too early to know how it happened or why it happened," said CHP Sgt. Robert Powers. "We're slowly piecing it together."
Authorities also said it was too soon to tell if speed, alcohol, or distracted driving played a role in this crash.
