Unhappy Local News Involving Cars

There was a huge crash on South 280 this morning just after 7:30 a.m., when a car speeding over 100 mph from Los Altos to San Jose lost control. A witness reports that the speeding car appeared to have something wrong with it, as the hazard lights were flashing and there was smoke coming from one of the tires. The 60-year-old speeding driver was trying to pass people in the left shoulder, but clipped one car and then rammed into the back of another, causing the rammed car to burst into flames. The driver of the car on fire died, the driver of the clipped car has minor injuries, and they don't know about the speeder's injuries.

There was a high-speed chase over the Bay Bridge early this morning (around 1:30 a.m.), after a driver in a pickup failed to stop at an SFPD officer trying to directing traffic at Harrison and Essex. The officer fired his gun at the car before he was hit, but it didn't affect the driver, who then merged onto Eastbound 80. An off-duty cop saw the whole thing and sped after the car. The driver was caught and arrested at the Broadway exit on 880 in Oakland; the struck officer has non-life-threatening injuries.

And, in the saddest car-related news, a man in Concord forgot that he was supposed to drop his 11-month-old son off at day care before work yesterday, and the baby died inside his car. The SFGate comments are working overtime on this one, with their usual level (or lack thereof) of tact, but among the finger-pointing and self-aggrandizement, one commenter notes that the father had been under significant stress at work and that he and his wife had been trying for a long time to have the child. The father will not be charged with a crime.

Picture of the 280 accident from the Merc News, by Jann-Paul D. Fabrin.