Bay Area Overpass Collapses

Oakland Tanker explosion and fire close busy freeway
By Dustin Lushing,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 30, 2007 5:50 AM CDT
Bay Area Overpass Collapses
Caltrans inspectors walk past a section of crumbled highway in Emeryville, Calif., after a tanker carrying gasoline exploded on Sunday, April 29, 2007. In the resulting blaze, a section of freeway that funnels traffic onto the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge collapsed. The truck's driver walked away...   (Associated Press)

A speeding 8,600-gallon gas tanker smashed into a guardrail early yesterday on a Bay Area highway, causing a fireball that melted an overpass above it. The driver sustained minor injuries, and no one else was hurt. But the collapsed overpass, which carried traffic eastbound from the Baby Bridge, closed I-880 and I-580 indefinitely.

San Franciscans are gearing up for a commuting nightmare; a transit spokesman predicts "a huge impact on that already congested route." Some witnesses are calling it a wake-up call. "If fire can do that to a steel structure like this, what can the next earthquake do?" (More San Francisco stories.)

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