Several rolling sideshows involving as many as 100 cars took place Sunday evening around 7:30 p.m. simultaneously on Interstates 580 and 880 in Oakland, at the Port of Oakland, the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza, and the streets of East Oakland. Stanley Roberts of KRON4 is all over this case of bad behavior, but it's not just the inconvenience and law-breaking donut-spinning that are at play this time. One motorcyclist fleeing the scene at one of the sideshows as law enforcement arrived was killed after crashing into an SUV off of I-580 at Castro Valley Boulevard.
As CBS 5 reports, the sideshows began around 7:30 p.m. in multiple locations and rolling down Oakland's freeways, led by gangs of swerving motorcycles and caravans of SUVs with hazard lights on and doors open in order to stop traffic and make room for the show.
Multiple YouTube videos including the ones above and below recorded the madness, and the massive traffic backups they caused. Roberts witheringly refers to it all as a "circus... [but] this one consisted of only clowns."
The CHP and OPD are examining surveillance footage from the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza and elsewhere to try to identify culprit drivers, but it seems like an impossible task since many just removed their license plates. And there were over 100 of them, which is why it sounds like pretty much no one was caught. The CHP also threatens that people can be cited simply for watching a sideshow, which: good luck with that.
Also, they're worried these things are getting bigger and more popular with the rise in helmet cams and the viral nature of the video footage here's some proud coverage of a "Sunday Funday" sideshow from January.
As one uploader sums it up: "Aint nun like Oakland."
