Truck Accident Brings Bay Area Freeway Down

Greg Owen

Attorney

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On Sunday, a tanker-truck became an inferno. A truck explosion actually melted a connector ramp just east of the Bay Bridge. The freeway, which has fallen on top of another freeway, was built in the 1950's and was retrofitted in the 1990. "...rather than rebuild the ramp according to already existing blueprints, engineers will likely overhaul the interchange to conform to today's more stringent seismic standards. Whenever you can start from scratch, you do so," said Jeff Weiss, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation.

After the truck explosion and freeway-ramp collapse, authorities were scrambling for immediate solutions. As a result, Monday was declared a free public-transportation day, and the governor declared a state of emergency.

One question on the minds of many is how a driver with a criminal background got a job hauling the 8,000 gallons of gasoline that burned and weakened the overpass causing it to disintegrate.