Early Thursday morning, shortly after last call, a driver in a BMW sports utility vehicle set off a two-alarm fire at a 76 station just off of I-880 after speeding away from an Alameda County sobriety checkpoint.
According to NBC Bay Area, the driver of the BMW (because it's always a BMW, isn't it?) was stopped by Alameda County Sheriff's deputies as part of a holiday "Avoid the 21" sobriety checkpoint campaign before apparently making the rash and inebriated decision to try and make a break for it. A chase followed on city streets before deputies found the vehicle smashed into two gas pumps at the gas station at 98th and Edes Avenues. The car became stuck on the pumps and took several hours to remove this morning, even after fire crews cut off the gas line and doused the station in firefighting foam.
"The irony of the situation," Sgt. JD Nelson told the local news this morning, "is the deputy who initially had to do the stop as part of the Avoid campaign, now has to save this driver from his burning vehicle."
The suspect was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life threatening injuries and was arrested for DUI. A passenger in the BMW was spoken to but not arrested.
Anyhow, please don't drink and drive this holiday season. That is all.
