Highway Collapse Spurs Bay Area Headache

Burning Fuel Truck Melts Section Of Heavily-Traveled Northern Calif. Freeway

(CBS/AP)  State transportation officials said it could take months to repair the damaged interchanges, and advised motorists to use public transportation in and out of San Francisco. They said drivers who chose to take alternate routes Monday would still face tough commutes.

"People are going to have to find a different way to work and back home in the evening so we are asking them to plan ahead and do their homework," said Jeff Weiss, spokesman for the California Department of Transportation. "This isn't going to be fixed in a matter of days."

Weiss could not give a timeline for getting the highway repaired and opened up again. "This is such a rare accident that we're a little bewildered," he told CBS Station KPIX correspondent Lisa Chan.

Overnight, workers had already begun demolishing parts of the collapsed ramp, as well as shoring up a portion that was resting precariously.

Though heat from the fire was intense enough to weaken the freeway and damage a stretch of highway hundreds of feet long, the truck's driver — the only injury — walked away from the scene, Officer Trent Cross of the California Highway Patrol said.

Cross said that initial investigation is leading police to suspect that unsafe speed was a factor.

According to CBS Station KPIX correspondent Joe Vasquez, the truck's driver, James Mosqueda, 51, of Woodland, was able to free himself from the wreckage and then wandered West Oakland for 30 minutes, "staggering in a daze of pain and shock," as he tried to wave down passing cars, one after another. No one would stop.

Mosqueda finally wandered over to a gas station — 15 blocks from the accident scene — where a taxi driver saw him.

"He walked up to me, he said 'I'm dying, I'm dying, I'm burning, I just had an accident,'" the taxi driver [who identified himself only as Anthony] told Vasquez. "I tried to calm him down."

Anthony drove Mosqueda to St. Francis Hospital, refusing to be paid. "I said, 'I don’t need the money, just hurry up, just rush in and get some treatment.'"

Mosqueda is being treated for second-degree burns at St. Francis' burn unit.

The driver's father, James Mosqueda Sr., told KPIX that his son has been driving trucks for three years with no problems and never had an accident.

However, Mosqueda's trucking company, Sabek Transportation, was involved in an eerily similar accident on June 23, 2006, when 4,500 gallons of diesel was spilled on a highway connector ramp in Vallejo.

Mosqueda was headed from a refinery in Benicia to a gas station near the Oakland airport when the accident occurred, according to the CHP.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said Sunday's fiery crash showed how vulnerable the Bay Area's transportation network is, whether to an earthquake or terrorist attack. Sunday's freeway collapse also has the potential to have a major economic effect on the city, he said.

"It's another giant wake-up call," Newsom said.

For KPIX's guide to commuting alternatives, traffic detours and maps, visit KPIX's Web site.

[duckarmv]

I was rear ended by a felon truck driver driving 9000 gallons of fuel - How is it we allow felons or criminals or people with false credentials drive our fuel turcks. What if they decide to sell out for drugs and we have a terrorist in possession of 10,000 gallons of flammible materials in the Holland Tunnel or blows it up on times square etc? Its time to stop the "madness" and get good drivers on the road! Concerned about America - Victor

[debtobar1]

Shame on you. It is sad to me that if you have committed a crime and did your time, You are still a criminal? You are not cappable of changing?? Once a criminal always a criminal? Shame on you. People with a checker life as you call it. Should not have a life? try to do right have a family, live, pay bills, have a new start? This is wrong. But yes it does seem people are guilty intil proven innocent. Would it been better for this man to stay doing drugs living on the street? My Husband and I dicide to not watch your News cast know longer. This is not right. Shame Shame. Hope you,or any one in your family will not be treat as if you should not have, or try to make a life for yourself. Always held back because of something you have payed the price for,and done your time for. Shame

[fascistusa]

What kind of MORON tries to compare this disaster with 9/11?

They aren't even close. They aren't even in the same galaxy.

EXPLOSIVE CHARGES WERE USED IN THE WTC.

YOU CAN EVEN SEE IT ON VIDEO.

IN FASCISM, 2 plus 2 = 5.

IN FASCISM, JET FUEL MELTS STEEL.

[passerby2]

A mind is a terrible thing to waste!

Posted by mbcsmith at 03:43 PM : Apr 30, 2007

you realize that yet you're so complacent and not willing to think or ask any questions, ironic. I don't have any intention of accusing the government of the 9/11 attack. But there are unanswered questions and circumstances that needs to be accounted for.

[talkingham]

Tucano- why would they have to hijack gas trucks, Arabs run virtually every 7-11 gas station in the country now along every major artery in the country. duhhhhhhh

[michellem99-2009]

The trucker will lose control when going high speeds. Yes he caused the freeway to go down on the bottom one. Yes his rig and petro started it. Was he drunk,tired,or what. Yes this has and will change getting about. If it means changing one schedule at home, school, or other daily tasks to do what must be done. So be it. I am grateful that no loss of life. The damages can and be fixed.What is important is being safe drivers.If not they should not have a licnse to drive. I am one who feels that we need to step upto the plate on this issue. Safety first.

[lochlan-2009]

That stated, I'm not going to jump to the conspiracy side of this story either. There are plenty of possible explanations. Concrete loses it's strength when broken even cracked. Explosions have huge kinetic energy, obviously. You also have a trailer made out of aluminum (most likely molten from the heat) burning with any possible metal oxides, highly unlikly though since even to start a thermite reaction you need temperatures hotter than what diesel burns at. My best guess would be the bridge expanded the steel beams while being heated pushing on the concrete supports, and after the fire started to die out the steel contracted making the bridge fall from it's supports. Just a guess though.

[lochlan-2009]

If this is not the fishiest story around today. Notice the topics being dsicussed. If you do a search on google there are only two stories that come up with a diesel fire melting steel in a structure, (the WTC and yesterdays bridge fire). That's it. No aircraft crarriers melting away after some accident, nothing, just these two stories, and the hundred thousand blogs saying, "I thought diesel couldn't melt steel."

Diesel fuel CANNOT melt steel. It cannot even get it hot enough to lose significant strength. Don't believe me, anyone own a diesel engine? What's it made out of. Those engines are combustion engines, this means they HEAT the air rapidly which expands against the pistons creating work(optimum performance means getting a fuel-air mixture that produces the most heat, without detonation which happens when the mixture is to lean and there are hotspots in the combustion chamber making the fuel explode).

[mbcsmith]

Weak minded? Why isn't osama dead or in custody? why the h*ell are we in iraq? Bush fighting terror? you know how long terrorists has been around, what makes you think that incompetent bush would be capable of ending something like terrorism? When pearl harbor was attacked, we went straight to japan and bombed the hell out of them. you "strong minded" people act as if you are all knowing, but you don't even know that you're being led like cattle.
Posted by passerby2 at 03:07 PM : Apr 30, 2007

So you and Rosie O'Donnel still believe the U.S. Government perpetrated 9/11. A mind is a terrible thing to waste!

[tucano2]

Of course this was an accident - but what a perfect terrorist weapon. Imagine- hijacked gasoline trucks and matches lighted off simultaneously at hundreds of key points nationwide. So cheap and effective. Bridges and tunnels obvious targets, but unguarded multiple level freeway intersections far more vulnerable.

[passerby2]

Give me a Hollywood budget and five fiction writers and I can convince you WEAK MINDED people that your a$$ is on fire!
Posted by mbcsmith at 01:35 PM : Apr 30, 2007

Weak minded? Why isn't osama dead or in custody? why the h*ell are we in iraq? Bush fighting terror? you know how long terrorists has been around, what makes you think that incompetent bush would be capable of ending something like terrorism? When pearl harbor was attacked, we went straight to japan and bombed the hell out of them. you "strong minded" people act as if you are all knowing, but you don't even know that you're being led like cattle.

[smb221]

I hope Rosie O'Donnell is completly humiliated right now. Jackass.

[booyaw_77]

Thats one big damned foot, buddy.. One big damned foot in yer mouth.

[booyaw_77]

Ya can't beat that 4 year college degree in "nation building". Something our cops do everyday. But ya send a 18 year old soldier to build a country engaged in a civil war? Well I say you should be a criminal. If there's any justice in this world, I mean.. If there's anybody whose ever read a single history book. Or knows one damned thing about freedom. There should be a jail somewhere for people like them.

[booyaw_77]

My bet is, that if there's a really really good self-help book out there somewhere about meeting people and having worthwhile friendships? It wasn't written by a Republican. Republicans would call it: "A violation of National Security laws."

[booyaw_77]

"Intelligence agencies, BY LAW, couldn't share information. This MORONIC law, which by the way was sponsored by a 9/11 commissioner was signed by Clinton. THERE'S a conspiracy for you."

Thats what they said about WW2. But of course, in WW2 everyone was on our side.

[nolalou]

talkingham,

I agree Bush used exaggeration, misinformation, and outright lies to justify a war with Iraq. That doesn%u2019t mean I believe in phony science to come up with some oddball theory about the World Trade Center. I believe it's collapse was due to terrorists crashing jets into the buildings. Do I belive the government shares some blame? Sure, for lack of intelligence, failure to share information among rival agencies, etc. But I don't for a second believe the buildings were blown up by our own government, any more that I believe the people who claim the levees were blown up on purpose after Hurricane Katrina.

Are you now suggesting the collapsed highway in California is also some kind of Government conspiracy? Do you think somebody hiding behind a grassy knoll blew it up?

[mbcsmith]

ball on preventing the 911 disasterwhich clearly could have been prevented if the FBI had shared their information with themselves about terrorists learnign to fly jet airliners and you - well not you, someone has to ask the tough questions about the whitewash by the whitehouse and their powerful friends. When you have a government run by liars and crooks conspiracy theories Posted by talkingham at 01:33 PM : Apr 30, 2007


Intelligence agencies, BY LAW, couldn't share information. This MORONIC law, which by the way was sponsored by a 9/11 commissioner was signed by Clinton. THERE'S a conspiracy for you.

[mbcsmith]

The questions surrounding the collaspe of the twin towers are not conspiracy theories, they are logical question that has been ignored. How can anyone who've seen the 9/11 mystery video, not raise an eyebrow to the events of the 9/11 attack?
Posted by passerby2 at 12:38 PM : Apr 30, 2007
+ report abuse

Give me a Hollywood budget and five fiction writers and I can convince you WEAK MINDED people that your a$$ is on fire!

[talkingham]

nolalou
you still can't anme one can you?- and I don't believe all conspiracy theories just most of the ones about a bunch of liars who got us into a war with Iraq for absolutely no reason - remember Bush's conspiracy theory was that Iraq was behind 911. I think the 911 collapse theories are more on target than Bush was. And frankly I didn't subscribe to any of the 911 theories until it became painfully clear that people in our government totally dropped the ball on preventing the 911 disasterwhich clearly could have been prevented if the FBI had shared their information with themselves about terrorists learnign to fly jet airliners and you - well not you, someone has to ask the tough questions about the whitewash by the whitehouse and their powerful friends. When you have a government run by liars and crooks conspiracy theories are bound to evolve unless you're talking about a nation of braindead morons who aren't allowed to think for themselves. Why did the 47-story building pancake when it wasn't consumed by jet fuel. You don't know and you don't want to know. You want someone to tell you it's OK so you can get about shopping at the mall and pay for $3/gal gas.