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A big rig driver lost control of his truck at 3:30 a.m. this morning while negotiating the infamous S-curve on the Bay Bridge. The vehicle plunged 200 feet onto Yerba Buena Island, killing the driver. The far right lane was reopened at 7:45 a.m., but CHP expects residual delays. The driver, who was transporting pears, was going ten miles over the speed limit, and investigators suspect the truck's cargo might have shifted, helping to cause the crash. The bridge did not experience any structural damage from the crash.
There have been 42 crashes at the S-curve portion of the bridge in the past two months, but most of them have been fender benders. CHP has had plans in the works to install radar units that post the speed of oncoming cars, as well as red reflector lights to catch drivers' attention at night.
CHP has tried to drill it into drivers to slow the hell down. We drove the S-curve for the first time yesterday, remembering to slow down to the posted 40 miles per hour, and most of the cars in the other lanes around us were speeding past.
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42 in 2 months? 42?!?!?
Note this prediction: Some judge, at the behest of ambulance chasing lawyers, will order the S curve fixed, shut the bridge project down, it will be 2020 before the whole disaster is finished, and bridge tolls will rise to $8.
Judges don't order bridges to be fixed at the "behest" of "ambulance chasing lawyers" (the preferred boogeyman of insurance companies and others who want to erase your 7th Amendment rights.)
Anyway, by your logic, wouldn't "ambulance chasing lawyers" seek to preserve this wonderful, business-generating design?
Prediction noted, and discounted, jackboot.
> wouldn't "ambulance chasing lawyers" seek to preserve this wonderful, business-generating design?
Well, yes, the obvious strategy is to order the bridge closed and construction halted but stay the order, then the S-curve will remain in the road an extra 3 or 4 years while everything gets sorted out.
@cooler: hmmm, obviously you are an ambulance chasing lawyer but otherwise I can't figure out what your point is. (Is it that judges can't grant injunctions or that lawyers don't ask for them?).
Anyway, wssander basic point is correct: this is a bad situation that will probably be made worse my litigation. (Though you are correct that the lawyers will probably figure out a more clever way to milk fees out of the situation than merely asking for an injunction).
they should rename the s-curve to the death-curve.
My guess is that the big truck drivers never got the many notices of the change and don't drive the bridge usually. I'm curious to know if they ask the drivers in these accidents if they are local, if they were aware of the changes to the bridge, if they had driven the "new" bridge before, etc., etc. But I guess they can't ask this driver.
In any event, it's not like this is the only curved road in the world. People just need to be better fucking drivers.
'cos truck drivers can only observe posted speed limits if they are warned about them in advance?
Guy was based in Hayward. Probably unfamiliar with the Bay Area.
from the chronicle...
Anjum's son, Tahir Anjum, said most of his uncle's driving consisted of cross-country trips.
"He had crossed the bridge hundreds of times, but this might have been the first time he had driven the Bay Bridge since the construction," he said.
It's insane that CalTrans won't just install a few rows of "rumble bumps" on the road surface a few hundred yards before the S-curve to really get drivers' attention.
there's no rumble bumps on that S-curve approach at all???
Nope, no rumble bumps at all. I think they would help a lot. I found that the 40 MPH sign came up pretty quickly before getting to the S-curve. Luckily, I knew to look out for it, thanks to all of the SFist coverage.
There are STILL no huge signs on the cantilever structure warning of it. On the lower deck at least they installed a big sign at the Treasure Island exit, but on the upper deck there are only small signs on either side of the roadway, and no rumble bumps.
Seriously they need to install a massive CURVE AHEAD 40 MPH sign, at least as big as the Treasure Island exit sign, on the very front of the cantilever structure, and again on the last segment before the curve. This needs to be OBVIOUS to all drivers, even those from Hayward.
Agreed. Needs to be a GIANT FUCKING FLASHING HOT PINK NEON SIGN right at the toll plaza or soon after. I was on the bridge last night. Those new flashing yellow lights are like 50 feet before the curve.
There needs to be a GIANT FUCKING FLASHING HOT PINK NEON SIGN anyway, just because those are always better than the boring message board signs.
(Even the GG Bridge 3 Lanes sign is better:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/34/98944818_b8df04359e.jpg
Or the NJ Turnpike style signs are easy to see:
http://www.aaroads.com/northeast/new_jersey050/i-095_nj_tpk_sb_exit_013a_02.jpg)
But seriously, how did they not think of this???
Another example: http://www.mikelevin.com/TollPlaza.jpg
get use to this !
This article is linked on http://www.cheatsheetnews.com
Fred Newsome
CSN Team
As a reminder, you can thank Jerry Brown for this.
I didn't realize Jerry Brown was an engineer.
No, Willie Brown is the engineer, Jerry Brown is the architect. I asked them to design me a new garage, but they said it would cost $60 million and be 2025 before they could finish it.
Actually, the type of bridge built would not have changed the need for temporary re-alignments during construction. Perhaps you mean different people would have crashed 5 years ago.
good point.
my limited private detective skills (available for hire) tell me that this guy was in the second to right lane, going too fast, presuming he was going straight while looking at the old superstructure in front of him in the lights. by the time he realized a big left turn was ahead of him, he locked up his brakes, turned hard to the left and went over the wall. look at the skid marks to see what i am talking about. open and shut. i'm guessing at least 65 miles per hour too.
I love that somehow, these speeding drivers aren't at fault-- but instead the bridge design. Why do we give scofflaw drivers a free pass and 'accept' that it's OK to break the law?
Slow. The. Fuck. Down. and stop complaining that it's the bridges fault.
Let's set aside the fight over speeding for a minute. Can we at least agree that the result of going 10 mph over the posted limit (I got that estimated speed from the SFGate article this morning) ought not to be plunging 200 feet to your death, and that Caltrans engineers should have mitigated that result when designing this curve?
no. caltrans and the chp are not done with a formal investigation. that fucktard was going way over the speed limit and wasn't paying attention to all the lights and signage. it was an accident. nothing you can do to stop people from making horrible mistakes in their lives every single day. darwinism at it's finest. sorry.
If Caltrans and the CHP aren't done with the investigation, how can you be so confident in asserting your guess of 65 mph?
10 MPH isn't universal 'allowance'- it is based on proportions and 10 more than 40 is a 25% increase over the speed limit. That's a lot.
And again, it is illegal, reckless, and dangerous-- and can and often does result in death-- just usually to people outside of the speeding vehicle. A Speed LIMIT -- is the MAXIMUM you should be traveling- not a recommendation.
This is a relatively easy fix. Simply engineer a traffic jam. Depending on the time of day, close the two or three right lanes. This will cause enough of a backup to slow everybody down.
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Hmm, last month Safeway groceries, this month pears. Clearly a ban on trucks hauling foodstuffs is called for.
Time for a good old-fashioned airdrop!
(And seriously, I feel bad for the driver's family, but how can you live in this area and *not* know about the S curve?!)
How about NorCal drivers learning the limits of their vehicles? I really think everyone should take an OFFENSIVE driving course in addition to a defensive one.
Rumble dots would cause drivers to LOSE traction especially if they had their wheels turned slightly before hitting them, and even more so if it was damp from rain or fog. Having those dots or flashing signs would cause some numskulls to slam on their brakes, adding to the 42 accidents on this new section.