COLLAPSE OF HIGHWAY 580 OVERPASS IN THE MACARTHUR MAZE, Oakland, CA — Early this morning a massive chunk of a 580 Eastbound overpass collapsed. The collapse was caused by an oil tanker truck that exploded underneath the 580 overpass. The heat from the truck weakened the 580 Overpass causing the overpass to collapse down crushing the truck.
The driver of the truck reportedly was not killed but was taken to the hospital. It is estimated that this disaster will affect East Bay and Bay Bridge traffic, an already extremely congested area, for months.
Amazing photo–that happened about 10 years ago around the same place. Good to hear the driver was not killed.
Can you say DOH! Thats gonna suck for everybody: the commuters, traffic around the area, AND we’re gonna pay to fix it.
I wonder if the guy did his best Steve Urkel “Did I do that??”
Fortunately, the accident happened at a time when there was no other traffic on that section. Imagine what would have happened if it occurred even an hour later….
That being said, I can’t wait for video of this accident to be spliced into Loose Change where they claim that tens of thousands of jet fuel couldn’t possibly melt steel in the WTC and cause a collapse, when a relatively piddling amount of automobile gasoline burning in an open air enviroment was enough to cause a reinforced steel-and-concrete, earthquake-hardened section to collapse like, well, the WTC.
One shouldn’t need a Ph.d to realize that steel doesn’t even need to melt – it just has to get soft enough that the weight of all that massive concrete will bring the whole thing down in an instant. Sadly, common sense and basic scientific knowledge seems to be in shortage these days….
Newsguy:
Oakland, April 29: Ali-Ali Oyxenfree, would be terraceist and sewerpipes bummer wrapped himself in 8,000 gallons of gasoline this morning and started the Bay Area’s largest marshmallow toast by crashing his truck into the Hwy 80/580 interchange. Ali-Ali neglected to note that the truck containing the doomed marshmallows, which had been following him, was nowhere in sight having taken a wrong turn headed toward Walnut Creek.
Rather than toasting marshmallows, Ali-Ali’s act, in protest of the lack of bike lanes in Lodi, resulted in a melting of the 580 Freeway. President Bush denied disaster status saying the San Francisco area wont get a cent of federal aid as long as they keep on voting for Democrats. Jesse Jackson and Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey immediately held a press conference demanding an end to Bush’s illegal war on terraces and poverty. Saying “No child should be required to catch up”.
Video at 11:00!
Not just East Bay and Bay Bridge traffic, elsewhere too. It took me almost an hour to get to work this morning on 101, when it normally takes me 30 mins or less. Ugh! How many months of this do we all have to deal with?