A fatal collision Thursday morning on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge claimed three lives and injured two others, authorities said.
California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Andrews told The Standard that 911 received a call about a Mini Cooper stalling for unknown reasons shortly after 4:10 a.m.
Moments later, officers responded to a 4:14 a.m. report of a collision blocking multiple eastbound Interstate 80 lanes at the Treasure Island on-ramp.
The California Highway Patrol issued a Sig-Alert at 4:30 a.m. warning drivers that lanes were closed and they should seek alternate routes of travel. The alert was lifted at 6:46 a.m., with slow traffic remaining along northbound Highway 101 at Cesar Chavez Street up to Fourth Street, according to KCBS.
San Francisco Fire Department Lt. Mariano Elias told The Standard that a Mini Cooper had stopped in the roadway’s No. 4 or second-from-right lane when it was struck by a white Toyota Tacoma pickup truck.
The driver and a rear passenger in the Mini were pronounced dead at the scene. Their identities were not immediately available from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
#Alert – Deadly crash activity still blocks all but left lane of Bay Bridge lowerdeck/EB 80 out of SF. No ETO. ALT: BART (5:28a) @nbcbayarea pic.twitter.com/zfL5AT6OcC
— Mike Inouye (he/his) (@MikeyNoWay) February 15, 2024
Firefighters used the “jaws of life” to help extricate a front-seat passenger in the Mini, who was taken to a hospital for treatment of major injuries. That passenger was pronounced dead at the hospital around 10 a.m., Andrews said.
The Toyota’s driver and a passenger were taken to a hospital for treatment of major and moderate injuries, with both expected to survive.
While a tow truck managed to pull the vehicles to the side to allow access to passengers, standstill traffic on Interstate 80 backed up into San Francisco for about two hours before slowly resolving.