California Freeway Collapses in Inferno

Emeryville, California was the location of an accident that reminded locals of the tragic earthquake in 1989 which caused roadways to collapse. Mother Nature had nothing to do with this one, but the people involved may very well think a miracle happened on April 29.

At 3:45 A.M. a tanker carrying 8,600 gallons of gasoline crashed and burst into flame on the westbound Interstate 80 connector to the southbound I-880 freeway, which brings traffic onto the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The bridge itself was fractured in the 1989 quake.

The truck driver actually walked away with second-degree burns, and no one else was injured. Police at the scene said the ending could have been a lot worse had it happened during either the morning or evening rush hours.

The crash created an inferno that shot flames 200 feet in the air. A California Highway Patrol officer told local reporters he was amazed no one was killed. The flames got so intense that part of the elevated roadway collapsed onto the road below.

The damage could take months to repair, resulting in the worst traffic nightmare in the Bay Area since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that gained quick notoriety for happening live during the opening game ceremonies of the baseball World Series in nearby Oakland. The seismic calamity also snapped part of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Over 280,000 commuters take that bridge into San Francisco every day.

City officials and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger mobilized quickly to help out motorists. The Bay Area Rapid Transit will be adding trains to their service, whose tunnels go under the river bed between the City By The Bay and Oakland. The governor has authorized the necessary funds to provide free transportation by bus, train, and ferry boats for commuters until the roadway is repaired in order to reduce traffic congestion.

The truck driver, James Mosqueda, was on his way to an Oakland gas station near the airport from a local refinery in Benicia. The investigation so far tends to lean towards the fact that Mosqueda may have been speeding when he lost control of the vehicle in a curve and slammed into a pylon. The tanker ruptured and the gasoline was probably ignited by a spark or contact with a hot exhaust pipe.

Witnesses reported that the roadway softened under the 2,750 degree heat. A 250 yard section of the interchange actually melted and flowed like a waterfall on the lower freeway. Repair costs could run into the tens of millions of dollars.