This is absolutely crazy and the one and only non-negative is that this didn't happen when the interchange was packed with cars. I haven't heard that there were many injuries aside from the driver of the gas truck. And from what I heard from KRON News, he was not the most responsible person. Apparently, the truck flipped over due to fast speed, entire tank load of gas explodes, he gets out of the truck right before, CALLS for a cab to bring him to Kaiser (correction: later reports state that he walked to Kaiser and was picked up by a cab along the way), instead of reporting the explosion ASAP, and after he gets to Kaiser, THEN he FINALLY calls 911 to report the incident! He has 2nd degree burns- yes, that is bad, but what is he thinking not calling 911 right away? There's no guarantee that would have minimized the melting of the connector but still, how could he think that walking to Kaiser would actually be better than calling 911 to A) treat his burns and B) minimize the damage. He was later transferred to St. Francis and will recover fully.
This is going to affect almost everyone tomorrow morning. I am aiming for a much earlier train to anticipate any delays, confusion, changed schedules...etc. My husband cannot even get to work anymore by car and will need to explore BART and bus as an option.
Get ready for a very very messy day on Monday. Free BART and public transit was just announced.
